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We're here at Pinery Provincial Park and I'm with Alison. Alison -- what are we going to
see today? We're going to see some of the coolest things in Pinery. Let's go. Awesome,
follow us!
What is this? What you've got in your hands is a Cicada Killer Wasp, and it's definitely
one of the coolest things in Pinery. It paralyzes the cicada. She actually lays an egg inside
the live cicada, and when it develops it starts to eat the inside of the cicada -- it's eating
it alive. And it'll come out as a brand new wasp and carrying out that entire process
all over again. So you've seen it in sci-fi movies like Aliens, but it's happening all
the time right here in Pinery. And they only want cicadas, not us. That's right. Unless
you look like a cicada, you don't have anything to worry about.
The sand dunes at Pinery are really cool. You can't see sand dunes in Ontario in too
many places, and we have a huge extensive system of them here right at the park. And
Marram grass -- it's a very special grass in that it grows completely in sand. More
sand is being dumped on it by the wind every year, and as it does that, the sand's caught
and deposited. If we didn't have this grass, most of the dunes would just start to blow
away. But this grass, unfortunately, is also very delicate. People walking on it can do
the most damage, and when that happens, the grass dies and the sand that it was holding
in place is gone. This is where keep off the grass means keep off the grass!
Don't touch it. Don't touch it!
So Doug, in a very short time, there's going to be this entire area covered in tundra swans.
This area will flood, come warm temperatures, and we'll have upwards of 60 to 80 thousand
Tundra Swans coming through here on their way up to the Arctic Coast for migration.
60 to 80 thousand? That's a lot of poop! That's a lot of birds, yeah.
So a lot of people are attracted to this area just to be able to see that many swans in
one spot. People setting up binoculars, scopes and also video cameras, because for some people
it's a once in a lifetime experience to be able to see that kind of migration happen
right here in Ontario. That's incredible.