Hellooo readers! I'm here on my last day of work on my internship. I got an extension so that I may finish my projects and I have done so. "But what," you ask, "adventure have you been on of late, OSU Nature Gal?" Well, I'm glad you asked.
The first neat thing I came across (to me anyway) relates back to Dr. Krissek's talk about beaches the other day. When the mouth of Old Woman Creek opened, you got a really good look at the layers of the beach sediment. That was really cool.
Also, while I was exploring, I found a couple of beached mussles that I nabbed and sent an email out to Mark, the Mussel Guy, with a picture asking if these were anything he'd be interested in with his study. He most certainly was. Apparently two were live specimins of the Papershell and the other was a Mapleleaf shell. They'd been looking for those and hadn't found them yet. When I saw Mark and his prof later on, they said they did like I did (walk along the shore where the water had been) and found quite a few more Papershells but no Mapleleafs.
The Division of Forestry was up here the week the mouth opened and they were doing a training for some of their newer empployees around the state. One of the things I got to watch was a gentleman banding birds. He put up nets to catch the birds, then he would band and weigh them, he would show us ways to age them and tell certian species apart, and let them go. I'm very happy I don't speak bird because I think my ears would have been on fire.
It was very interesting to watch him. You need a delicate hand to get those guys out of the nets. We almost had a humming bird but she got away. We banded several cardinals, mostly hatched this year.
While out watching them, I also spotted a Green Frog and a Walking Stick. I love nature! The walking stick found it's way into an aquarium for my Insect Extravaganza (more on that later) and I looked them up and found that, contrary to what I thought, they are vegetarian and like rose and blackberry leaves.
Also, that week, was the Old Woman Creek Advisory Council meeting. I did a brief presentation there about my internship and what I've been up to. I know you all have been reading my blogilicous stories here so I don't have to tell you what I've done.
We had another canoe trip and that contained a special surprise. First, we were able to see where the water line was on the vegetaion along the shore. That was worth pointing out. I've mentioned before that there was an oak tree blocking the path at a certian point of the creek. Well, it looks like our big rain storms, plus the mouth of the creek opening up, took care of the problem for us! We were able to get by for the first time this summer and we went almost all the way to route 2. Here's a shot of the Minehonto Oak from the other side. Pretty impressive, eh? It was a lovely evening that night and a very pleasant canoe trip.
Friday was a trip to Columbus for the Ohio Avian Ecology and Conservation Confrence. This year, it was held at the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium. I admit it, I spent part of the day in the confrence and part of the day wandering the zoo. However, I was a good girl and kept my wanderings related to birds. I saw Flamingos, and very colorful phesants, plus some others that I don't remember what they're called now. I even saw some very specialized birds, night flyers and swimmers. I did stop to see the kitties though. They were all sleeping of course.
Okay, I think I'll leave off there. Next time, I'll tell you about the water sampling and the cool mushrooms on the other side of the preserve and Back to the Wild and my wee snapping turtles.
Till next time!
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