12/30/13

It was negative 17 this morning.  I don't know how things around here can live in this cold.  The snow was crusty and hard to cross country ski on.  It was not fun.  Bob said listen to the birds--I did not have my hearing aids in so I could not hear anything.
Gary

10/29/13

This is October 29th and it was a TWO SNAKE Day!   Wow.  The kids said they saw more snakes and I did not believe them but then we did find two large Garters--it was great.  The first one I picked up and it was quite aggressive and bitting me,  it did draw blood.  The kids all wanted to touch it.  It just so happened we were talking about scents (deer giving/leaving scents on the ground and on trees and then I let the kids smell my hand after holding the snake.
Gary

10/12/13

Yesterday while biking with third graders from St. Peters we saw many more snakes than usual:  Brown Snakes, Red Bellies and Garter.  About a dozen in all along the way.
We also saw two huge puff balls, lots of walnuts and Hickories.
Gary

10/3/13

 A little Brow Snake has been the highlight of the trip to the Hartje Nature Center.
Once again feeding the fish minnows is also a mixed experience--kids thinking it is aweful that I put in the minnows just to be eaten and others cheering and all excited.  I explain that it is the circle of life: big things eat little things and little things eat smaller things.  We eat cows and pigs and chickens.
Gary

9/27/13

Kindergarten at Mirror Lake in the Big Canoe--it was wonderful but sightings of Wildlife was not great--a kingfisher, a Great Blue Heron, Two Turtles.  that is about it.
Gary

9/26/13

What a great day!  Canoeing/kayaking with 4th graders at Mirror Lake in the fog--it was beautiful.
It was calm and the kids were wonderful, the parents were a great help also.
The big thing today--A kindergarten class was with me at Smith Conservancy and we looked under an old log and found a salamander.  Then, while looking at that, we saw more movement and after moving a few leaves we found baby shrews!  it was awesome.
Gary

9/23/13

I just thought of something really neat--in the aquariums at Hartje I have put in minnows and crayfish , all quite common except the other day I found an all white (almost translucent) crayfish.
Perhaps it is this way after it sheds its shell, I will keep an eye on it.
Gary

9/21/13

I cannot believe how negligent I am with this blog--oh wait, yes I can.
I spent the day yesterday with a CDS class in the big canoe--they were my kind of group: on the bus
they thought it was great when I said we were now on the magic school but turned into a space ship and when we saw cows they liked it that I said the cows were really dinosaurs dressed as cows.
Oh Well, not every group would like that.
I have seen lots of dead cicadas on the sidewalks lately.   The road killed fox that I put in the Decomposition Observation Area  in August is down to skin and bones already and the skunk is just bones.
I tried seining for minnows for the fish at Hartje but I did not even see one minnow at Mirror Lake
The bass from Devil's lake still only eats minnows while the others eat hotdogs, worms and kielbasa.
No sign of great migrations of birds yet.
Gary

8/24/13

I know,  I have been extremely negligent over the summer.  Here is a catch up on Nature and Me over the summer:
Fabulous trip to the Galapagos.  Walking amongst giant tortoises, Blue footed Boobies, Iguanas, Lava Lizards, frigate birds and swimming with Galapagos sharks and sea lions--it was truly amazing.
Next we went to the Amazon, Napo River, Sacha Lodge.  We fished for Piranah and then swam with them--we were assured that they would not attack us and they didn't.  Also in the lake were Caimen and once again we were assured they would not be out during daylight hours and we did not get eaten.
We walked 120 in the air on the canopy walk and saw parrots, Toucans, Howler Monkeys and a variety of other birds.
We saw squirrel monkeys, and other monkeys.  We watched parrakets eating on the mud cliffs, avoiding a boa just waiting for a misstep.
Finally we spent time in Ecuador and went to the equator where we experience several interesting experiments:  A tub of water with a drain  10 feet into the northern hemisphere-- when draining it swirled counter clockwise,  10 feet in the southern Hemisphere it swirled clockwise, right on the equator it went straight down.
Balancing an egg on a nail was much easier right on the equator..
Since that time I have found Bryozoans in Mirror Lake in much greater quantity than other years.  I took some back to an aquarium at the Hartje Center and after a few days they disappeared--they could have been eaten by the minnows that were in there.
While setting up canoes we found a wood Chuck in a tree eating the leaves--I have never seen that before.
With my new hearing aids, bird sounds are much louder than ever before.  I have spotted many catbirds in our yard this year and in the early Spring we had more orioles than usual.
School trips start soon.
Gary

4/17/13

I forgot--one more thing from yesterday!  the kids caught a leopard frog and we also heard one croking!

4/17/13

It is Spring.  Even though it is cold and too rainy I now know that it is Spring.  How do I know?  I saw the first snake yesterday.  While doing a pond study (I use the term study loosely) with second graders, they caught a Garter Snake that was swimming in the pond.  This Garter Snake was much more reddish than the usual--I thought maybe because of where it had been napping all winter.  It was also much calmer and did not even attempt to bite any of us--I thought it was probably just very cold and did not want to exert itself.  It was a wonderful catch, we of course let it go.
Gary

4/13/13

We have had a week of cold and rain.  Field trips all week were cancelled.  There is flooding in the nature area so I could not walk in it as usual.  I did do some work at Hartje on the garden: fencing, spreading hay and just cleaning up a little.   The bright spot in the week was a flash of blue--the first bluebird of the season.  It was beautiful.
Gary

March 31st

The geese and cranes are very active and loud today.  They seemed to be saying "stay away buster" rather than welcome back old friend.  
The creek is over flowing and the river is over its bank.  I am waiting for a couple days in the 50's so the Wood Frogs will be coming out.
Gary

March 16 2013

I am in love with Dusk.  Today when I was going to the woods I was greeted by the wonderful calls of the cranes--they are back.  It is like having old friends return.  There were three of them.  I am hoping it was the couple that was here last year but now with their yr old offspring.  When they saw me they started making their calls--I think they were saying hi to me and its good to be back.
Then!  as I walked closer to the bridge over our creek I spotted some sort of weasel.  It was too small for an otter and probably not a greater weasel so either a mink, lesser weasel or ermine--I don't know that much about any of them but it was so cool to see this weasel loping along the snowy bank.  It made me think of an article that had been in our paper a few weeks ago about trapping an otter.  Why?  How many people have seen these magnificent animals alive in the wild?  Why do we have to trap and kill them?  Is there an over population?  Will they attack our kids, or animals, our dogs our cats?  Why kill them?
I will step off my soap box but I may write a letter to the editor and see what happens.  I have refrained from doing anything anti-macho hunter to avoid irritating sponsors but I cannot hold my tongue much longer.
Gary

3/4/13

I think we have alien Deer in our Area.  I have seen lots of normal scat and pee but in the last two weeks I have seen green pee that seemed rather thick and blue pee.  One might think it was from people pouring some drink into the snow but I could not find any human foot prints around only deer prints.
I would also like to know about sleeping arrangements:  do they prefer sleeping in groups or alone?  Ihave found single beds but then I have also found groups of 4 and more.  It seems to me that they prefer sleeping in groups.  When I asked the Kindergartners what they preferred most of them preferred sleeping alone in their own room.
Gary

2/26/13

Today was a banner day for outdoor learning and finding things.  I was at the woods behind North Freedom School with 5th graders.  I had stopped to show the kids an oval hole in a tree made by a Pilated Wood Pecker when one of the kids said he smelled skunk.  I got very excited because I had just told the kids that this was a very active time of year:  mating season for lots of animals, birds returning and especially the Cardinals showing off and calling for a mate.  I said "great that you smelled that but its not skunk"  it is Fox spray--letting potential mates know that he is around.
Then we went further and found a huge rock with an overhang and the smell was very strong  with lots of trails leading to it and away from it, with sand on the trails.  As we went further one of the kids found a shed--a newly lost shed because there was still blood on the trail and on the base of the shed.  It also had chew marks on it.  We had a great adventure this day.
Gary

2/17/13

Snowshoeing is loud!  It is fun also, because it is crusty and most of the time I can walk on top of the snow and the kids definitely are on top of the snow.  There are lots of deer tracks and other tracks and they reall make you look at the patterns rather than the print itself.  Lots of deer scat, some great deer beds with a few hair "clues".  The other day it was warm enough for the snowfleas to be out.
Today I found a pile of pinecone shreds at Romoren School forest so I figured it was the little red squirrels.
Gary

1/12/13

This week has been great up until Friday when it got too warm, rainy and the snow melted.  On Thursday, while waiting for a 6th grade class to come out to the Popple Nature area, I was walking on the ice on the pond and saw something moving across the ice.  I thought it was a leaf blowing but then realized it was crawling/running.  I watched more and bellieve that it was a vole--bigger than a mouse.  I stopped and watched.  When I did that it turned, looked at me and probably thought "what is that big ugly thing--it is scary.  With that it turned around and desperately tried to burrow under the snow to keep out of sight.  Finally it reached the bank again and disappeared into the bursh.
I also found , what I think is a dead raccoon along the bank.  It had been there long enough so that the fur was almost completely off.  The toes were long and narrow and relatively small (not a badger) and the face was pretty small and pointy.  Inspite of the relative cold weather it was pretty stinky.
Gary

1/5/13

Snow is still here!  While walking through the woods, not on the trails, there are many deer paths, many deer beds, lots of scat and lots of pee.  I just hope the snow stays for a while--warm eather is predicted for this week.  I saw one deer  today and one Muskrat--he immediately went under a ledge and did not reappear.  The scent of Fox was very strong in spots today, mostly near town. 
I need a cheaper source of worms for the fish in the Nature Center--a $3.00 container lasts two feedings!  Where can I get cheaper worms?
Gary