Dinosaur Egg Hunt debuts in Glen Cove

Five-year-old Dominick Fresco is a frequent visitor to Garvies Point Museum and Preserve in Glen Cove, and one of his favorite things is dinosaurs -- along with sharing. So there wasn’t a better place for him to be Saturday than the facility’s inaugural Dinosaur Egg Hunt.

“I like the dinosaurs a lot,” said Fresco. “We got a lot of dinosaur eggs, I think like 10, so we gave one away.”

Dominick bagged some of the 2,000 "dinosaur eggs," colorful plastic eggs with candy inside, hidden in the brush. The idea for the Dinosaur Egg Hunt came from from a similar event held in Sands Point, said Garvies Point employee Veronica Natale, who was helping run Saturday’s event.

“I want to find the camouflage egg,” said Dylan Riina, 5, of Glen Cove. “We’re looking around everywhere.”

The Garvies Point Museum and Preserve began the event with a short educational introduction about dinosaurs. Children also decorated brown paper bags with their names so they would have a place for their eggs during the hunt.

“I liked that this egg hunt was a little something different,” said Ida Johnson of Glen Cove, who was there with her three sons. “We’ve gone to other ones, but I liked that this was dinosaur eggs.”

After the egg hunt, the children went inside for a 30-minute film called “Eyewitness Dinosaur,” followed by making their own dinosaur out of paper to take home. Peri Dunn, 7, was surprised by how much she learned.

“I don’t really think I ever liked dinosaurs,” said Peri. “But probably now I do, 'cause I learned that they are the only reptiles that walk on their hind legs.”

Above: Gabriel Giannola, 4, shows off the eggs he found at the Garvies Point Museum and Preserve Dinosaur Egg Hunt. (April 07, 2012)