The Tantramar Wetlands Centre (TWC) helped Ducks Unlimited Canada celebrate an impressive milestone this spring! In May 2014, we hosted the 100,000th New Brunswick student to participate in Project Webfoot since the program began in 1996.

The TWC is one of several partners that delivers the Project Webfoot program, a co-curricular program developed to compliment New Brunswick’s Grade 4 curriculum on habitat. The TWC on its own has delivered wetland education programs to just under 60,000 visitors since opening our doors in 1998 from our location in Sackville, NB.

The Wetlands Centre’s critter dipping dock and our own Max Farella were on Global News (click here to watch the video).  Max and Sarah Stewart have been representing the TWC for this project Webfoot program since they participated when in grade 4 and are now deliver the program as high school students.  Check out the pictures below to see the celebration and Project Webfoot in action!

Our dedicated helpers, Mark and Ryan, made the front page of the Sackville Tribune Post!

Complimentary cake to celebrate 100,000 NB students… and counting!

Ducks Unlimited Canada (temporary) tattoos were sported by many during the celebration!

Beginner Birder: many students have the opportunity to use binoculars for the first time!

Wetland Benefits: a fun relay race that teaches students about what makes wetlands so valuable!

Critter Dipping: searching for aquatic macroinvertebrates (aka insects in the water) with a net and bucket.

Migration Headache: an exciting game in which students can be active while learning about duck migration and habitat.

  You can view more pictures in our Photo Gallery or on Flickr.

The winter seems to have spilled into spring this year. Despite the cold weather, our winter program is long gone and we are well into our spring program. The weather is often unpredictable and varied on the Tantramar Marshes and this winter was no exception. This makes planning ahead for winter visitors a challenging endeavour!

This year we welcomed more than 25 classes to the Tantramar Wetlands Centre to participate in the Wetlands in Winter program. Visitors have the opportunity to learn how to identify the skulls, tracks and “scat” (droppings) of wetland animals, explore what is living under the ice, and take a walk using snowshoes to take in the beauty of the snow-covered marsh.

Wetheads being trained to identify mammal skulls.

Showing students the size of a polar bear skull in comparison to the local black bear.

Snowshoeing towards the marsh while identifying tracks in the snow along the way.

Drilling a hole in the ice to collect a sample. This helps show students that there is life in the marsh, even in the winter!

The MASSIE students visited the Wetlands Centre and tried using snowshoes.

Looking through the samples from under the ice, students find lots of macroinvertebrates living in the marsh!

Searching for macroinvertebrates.

Examining critters (like this leech) on the big screen.

Some of the many wonderful Wethead volunteers that helped with our winter program. (Watch out for that black bear!)

Two Canada geese on the frozen marsh on April 14, 2014. A very long winter indeed.

You can view more pictures in our Photo Gallery or on Flickr.

As the days continue to get shorter and colder, the Tantramar Wetlands Centre has finished its fall banding program and is preparing for winter. Every year, our wonderful Wethead volunteers and various visitors have the chance to participate in our educational waterfowl banding program.

Take a look at these photos to learn about the process, see pictures of ducks, and see how students experience wetlands through waterfowl.

Wethead student volunteers learn how to identify ducks before putting their knowledge into practice in the marsh.

Wetheads prepare to take canoes to the duck traps to bait the ducks with cracked corn.

Each morning, students canoe out to the duck traps in the marsh. If ducks have been trapped, they retrieve the ducks and bring them to shore for banding. Then, students help bait the traps with cracked corn to attract more ducks.

Canoes full of students and ducks return to shore. The ducks will be banded before being released back into the marsh.

Wetheads gather on the banding platform to identify and band ducks.

Male Mallard duck (easily identified by it’s emerald green head).

When banding ducks, it’s necessary to identify the species. The two white bands on either side of the purple-blue patch (the speculum) indicate that this is a Mallard.

The absence of the white bands on either side of the purple-blue speculum indicates that this is an American Black Duck.

Our long-time volunteer, Nev, demonstrates how to put a band on a duck’s leg.

Our Fall Co-op student, Katelynn, holding a Mallard while he waits to be banded.

Wethead student volunteer learning how to hold the duck before releasing it back into the wild.

Student volunteer prepares to release a Mallard.

Visiting student successfully releases a duck back into the marsh.

Wethead releasing a duck outside the Tantramar Wetland Centre.

A visitor releases a banded duck on our final day of banding for 2013.

You can view more pictures in our Photo Gallery or on Flickr.

Spring is an exciting time at the Tantramar Wetlands Centre. As the ice melts and animals return and reappear, we start to measure time by which birds we see and how fast the ice is melting.

Tree swallow on a nesting box. Tree swallows let us know that spring has arrived.

Spring is also a very busy time in the marsh. In preparation for our Spring Program, we trained dedicated Wetheads during their enrichment period, helping them become experts leaders for all of our activities. We also hosted the Ducks Unlimited Training Day to help prepare participants from other wetlands sites for the Project Webfoot spring program.

Wetheads learning about cattails in spring training during enrichment.

Ducks Unlimited Project Webfoot Training Day at TWC this spring.

During May and June, over 60 Grade 4 classes visited the TWC  from around New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, mostly sponsored by Ducks Unlimited through Project Webfoot. Over 60 Wetheads lead these students through various fun activities and games that teach about the importance and biodiversity of wetlands, invertebrate and bird identification, and our relationship to our natural environment.

Students on the critter dipping dock searching for invertebrates and other critters in the marsh.

Students learning about what they found in the marsh while critter dipping, such as snails, leeches and dragonfly nymphs.

Students participate in a relay race while learning about the benefits of wetlands.

Students learning about biodiversity by playing touchboxes.

Students learning about duck populations, conservation and migration after playing Migration Headache.

Wetheads assist students in using binoculars to see and identify various birds in the marsh.

We always enjoy the annual visit from MASSIE students (Japanese university students participating in an exchange program at Mount Allison University). Even though it was too windy to canoe, we went bird watching and critter dipping.

MASSIE students critter dipping in the marsh.

Japanese univeristy exchange students searching for insects in the water.

You can view more pictures in our Photo Gallery or on Flickr.

Over 25 classes visited the Tantramar Wetlands Centre to participate in our Wetlands in Winter program this year. Through fun, hands-on activities, both indoors and outdoors, students learned about the local wildlife and the importance of our biodiverse wetland – even in winter!

Students gained useful skills like how to snowshoe and identify animals tracks in the snow. The classes also had the chance to see muskrat houses up close, learn about mammal skulls and watch volunteers drill a hole in the ice to see what’s living in the marsh during our coldest months.

Students trying to guess which animals the tracks belong to.

Students identifying tracks and scat with the help of two Wetheads.

Snowshoeing on a sunny day.

Students excited to find bones in an owl pellet.

A Wethead helping students identify invertebrates.

Wethead helping two students and a teacher find macroinvertebrates.

You can view more pictures in our Photo Gallery or on Flickr.