Capturing nature in the heart of Brandon

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This article was published 12/07/2021 (1947 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

It’s amazing the wealth of wildlife living in the heart of Brandon.

At least, it surprised Hannah Corenblum, who has spent much of the COVID-19 pandemic photographing the Riverbank Discovery Centre’s expansive grounds along the Assiniboine River.

“It just became something I love doing,” the tourism hostess and social media co-ordinator said. “I come here in my evenings when I’m not working.”

Corenblum is a third-year student at Brandon University, where she is majoring in psychology and minoring in biology.

She started out with Brandon Riverbank Inc. as a part-time summer student and shifted to full-time during this summer, in part to accommodate her new role heading the organization’s social media presence.

Among her more popular posts thus far has been of a fox she came across on the property.

She’d spent approximately two hours looking for it upon hearing rumours a fox was seen in the area, and was walking toward her car having given up when it came running down the path she was on.

The fox “nonchalantly went past me and stopped and sat in the grass,” she said. “It looked like the fox was ready for me to take its head shot.”

She took a photo of the fox and posted it to social media, where people were encouraged to name the creature.

A couple of hundred people responded, and staff ended up selecting the name Finnegan from their suggestions.

The fox ended up having babies, so in retrospect, Corenblum said it might have been better named Francine.

Another popular post was that of a large snapping turtle, which was in the process of laying eggs.

She’d received a phone call from someone to let them know a snapping turtle was in the process of laying eggs, so she headed out with barricades to prevent people from inadvertently stepping on the eggs.

As usual, she also grabbed her camera.

The response to her posts has been overwhelmingly positive, she said, with a number of people expressing surprise there’s so much wildlife along Brandon’s stretch of the Assiniboine River.

“I think that with COVID there hasn’t been a lot for people to do, and getting a chance to see the animals is pretty special,” she said. “We don’t have a zoo or anything here, so when you get to see them in their natural habitat, that’s pretty cool.”

Riverbank general manager James Montgomery said the number of visitors to the property has spiked during the pandemic, in part likely a result of Corenblum helping people know about what kind of sights they can expect to see on the property.

“All sorts of beavers, muskrats, geese, ducks — you name it, she’s got pictures of them and incredibly good pictures, too, and some really rare ones,” he said. “Hannah’s really made it her own and taken the bull the horns.”

Walking through the property last week, Montgomery pointed out a number of new additions to the property, including the newly named Fusion Credit Union Stage in Festival Park and an accompanying sign highlighting those who donated toward the effort.

A fourth birdhouse for purple martins, an Indigenous sharing circle, a short stretch of rubber sidewalk, a new viewing platform and various other features have been sprinkled throughout the grounds.

“Surprisingly, during a pandemic we’ve been able to maintain our fundraising and capital fundraising goals,” he said, adding that at the same time, their events bookings, which typically bring in approximately $2,000 a month, have been down to zero.

Visitors to the building itself were approximately 100,000 in 2019, and were only 9,000 last year due to ongoing restrictions and occasional shutdowns.

Through it all, though, visitation to the property itself has proven popular.

“The parking lot is always full, and I know some of it is people carpooling — there’s some of that — but now that there’s some travel allowed, we see people from all over Canada come through,” he said.

“We’re heading toward the future now, I feel, and we have a lot more forward momentum here.”

The Instagram page for Brandon Riverbank Inc. is @brandonriverbank. Their Facebook page is called Brandon Riverbank, and their Twitter page is @BdnRiverbank.

» tclarke@brandonsun.com

» Twitter: @TylerClarkeMB