Monday, July 30, 2007

Eco-Detective Week (July 30-August 3)

We have a very exciting theme this week. Of course I think so, I came up with them! Anyway the kids will become mini-detectives and look for clues of what calls Mt. Pleasant home. Along with this, I was able to get Mr. Heacock, the principle of Hashawa Outdoor School, to come and bring some of his feathery friends. The educators have plans for diseccting owl pellets, along with an archaeological dig and doing the Mentos and soda experiment. We are ending the week with tye dyeing, either their own shirts or camp shirts -(if they are new this week).

It is going to be fun, to find out everything that they see this week.

Saturday, July 28, 2007

Assasin or Wheel Bug

I was showing one of the campers yesterday a cone flower that had two cones attached with pedals that were growing around the middle, when I came across this really cool Assasin Bug (or Wheel Bug). It was in the coneflower bed behind the carriage house, along the sidewalk. As you can tell it is using its rostrum to pierce then suck out the insides of the bee. This is a really cool web site to go to: http://www.ivyhall.district96.k12.il.us/4TH/KKHP/1INSECTS/assassin.html for the people who want to learn about the mechanics of it all. I just found it awe inspiring, we usually just see them hanging out on a leaf or the buildings.

Friday, July 27, 2007

The fun friday at camp!

By Enya

Ms. Tabby had a pet ferret, his name was Apple Jack a.k.a AJ. AJ is very cute and in the morning he was very squirmy when we brought him to the stream. Then after that he slept for the rest of the day.
When we went to the stream with Ms Tabby, we looked for different kind of larva. We found something with pinchers and legs that curved out. After that we made a book about the different kinds of animals that live at the East Branch and Davis Branch streams.

My last day at camp

by Bryce

Today we did tye dying after lunch. I made a spiral with orange, yellow, dark green, and maroon. I don't know what it looks like yet, because it is still drying. My favorite type of tye dye is the spiral. Whenever I do tye dying I mostly do spiral.

In the morning my group went to the Honor's Garden and checked the filter so that we could make sure there was nothing in there, but we found a gray tree frog. We put it into the terrarium that we built for it. Then we went back to the Honor's Garden to go to a stream and we made an amphibian habitat for our stewardship project. Then we went back to the building and got some butterfly nets to catch some bugs for the frog to eat.

Thursday, July 26, 2007

Animals

by Erik

Today I saw a turtle and a toad. I saw fish and crayfish in the Patapsco River. Yesterday I saw two salamanders in the stream closer to the building. I tried to catch one of them and I missed. They were black with two yellow lines on the back.

The Wierd loking SNAKE!

By Enya

On the hike to Patapsco I was walking and a snake slitherd right in front of me(I almost stepped on the snake). It was about 13 inch. and it had green and yellow stripes down its back.


Turtles and frogs

by Sophie

On the way back from the walk to the river, Miss Kayla found a turtle and then Erik passed it back to Miss Virginia so they could see, then somebody put it back in the grass. It was little about the size of a small wall clock. A couple days ago I saw a leopard frog and it was sitting on a rock in a little stream and we saw it while we were crossing the bridge.

a walk through the woods

By Ryan

At the conservancy we see all kinds of animals. At the
Patapsco river we saw box turtles, ground hogs, fish, different birds, grass hoppers, and water striders. Earlier in the week we saw fox's in there dens and a raccoon.
One kid even found an injured Owl and saved it by taking it to the sanctuary.
Today we saw what i thought was a rock i went to pick it up to throw in the water but then it leaped into the bushes. Turns out it was a well camouflaged toad.
We played fun games some to learn about wetlands called "float that boat", "eat it", and "winged migration".
we also played like "black magic" and "a blind man needs eye's to see" just for fun.

Tuesday, July 24, 2007

The Davis Branch Stream

By Bryce

The waterstriders found in the streams and the rivers at the Conservancy, are fast. To catch them you need to find a big group and scoop your hands in and with your fingers apart and close them as soon as you touch the water, and it will trap the waterstriders in between your fingers. The crayfish range from about the size of your middle finger to the size of your thumb fingenail to your first thumb joint. One girl had a baby crayfish stuck Croc (a shoe). On a plant stem we saw a dragonfly case, that was like a cicada shell, and it was when a dragonfly got its wings (when a dragonfly larvae comes out of the water and gets onto a branch like a cicada and sheds out of its skin to get its wings.)

On the way back my teacher saw a huge fishing spider with an egg sac. She said she almost had a heart attach. There was a lot of ticks.

The second fun day at the Conservancy!

By Enya

This morning I went with my group to see if we could find the fox. That we saw yesterday. The den was active. We knew that it was active because we saw scat all around it. When we looked inside we saw the mother and it's babies. Then one of the camper's looked on the other side and saw a raccoon. Yep one of our lucky day's!

Monday, July 23, 2007

Praying Mantis molt

by Bryce and Shane

We saw the shell of the praying mantis that was our teacher's pet. It was in the terrarium in the bank barn. The shell is the exoskeleton of the praying mantis that is like a dead layer of skin falling off. It shedded off in one piece. Only insects can do that or things with scales like snakes.

P.S. Unfortunately the molt blew away in the wind so we couldn't take a picture.

Aquatic Adventures Week (July 23 - 27)

During the Aquatic Adventures Week of camp the campers will play in the many streams on and around the property, explore how many critters live in or depend on the streams for survival and learn what they can do to help the Chesapeake Bay. Environmental Concern from St. Michaels is coming on Wednesday to teach them about wetlands with a program called Shrek's Swamp.

One of the staff brought in a bowl full of these tiny black wiggly things, thinking they are tadpoles. We are going to let them age a little and find out exactly what they are. One of the fathers (a stream ecologist) thinks they may be leeches!