Rain, rain go away
Published 11:15 am Friday, August 10, 2012
Jay C. Hormel Nature Center executive director Larry Dolphin, right, talks with Wayne Ulrich during an informal Q and A at the DNR Building Thursday evening. Dolphin is holding the center's education owl Gukaoo.
A 15-minute downpour didn’t stop a steady stream of fairgoers Thursday from checking out two little critters. Jay C. Hormel Nature Center Director Larry Dolphin was showing off a barred owl and a fox snake, the biggest attractions in the Izaak Walton League building at the Mower County Fair.
Jay C. Hormel Nature Center summer intern Maria Anderson lets 12-year-old Isabel Beck hold a box snake Thursday evening at the DNR Building at the Mower County Fair.
Fifteen-year-old Jacob Burkhart held the snake, and he said it was awesome. Julia Hultgern, 10, there with her father, was at the fair to check out the rides but the snake drew her in, as well.
“You bring out a live animal, and it brings people in,” Dolphin said.
The owl, named Guka-A-Oo-Ah, is 7-years-old and lives in a pen at the Nature Center after injuring his wing. The fox snake is one of two at the Nature Center.
Dolphin said he had a captive audience during the rain, which started around 5:15 p.m., as many fairgoers ducked for cover. Austin only got 0.38 inches of rain Thursday, but nearly all of it came during a 15-minute span, according to the National Weather Service.
