Under the Bridge

After breakfast bright and early, Zach and Amy led us down to a small creek on campus because we finished up breakfast quickly. When we got down there we searched for a couple a salomanders and found a couple with some crayfish. It was pretty exciting to be able to find creek animals so quickly. Zach was awesome at catching manders, and was teaching us how when we had to go. I really enjoyed burning some extra minutes catching some animals. It was loads of fun.

A Trip to the Farm

Well, today was a first full day of Creek Camp, and our schedule was jam-packed! We went hunting for macros and played with the stream table, (SOOOO much fun!!) but there's more to read about that in other posts. This post is about our trip to the dairy farm.

Well our dairy farm tour was taken backwards today because they had a problem in the milking barn. We got our picture on the huge tractor first. Next, we made our way to the calves. There were several calves all separated by their ages. The youngest would suckle on your fingers if you offered them the opportunity and they were VERY cute! (but who doesn't find baby animals cute?)

After that, we visited the dairy cows that were waiting to be milked. It stunk really badly but we learn a lot. For example, we learned that the cows are always pregnant because otherwise their milk would dry up. We also learned about what they feed the cows, (fermented corn and hay). Lastly, we visited their cow "maternity ward". Most of the pregnant cows stay out in the pasture until they are ready to calf; then they bring them into the barn and monitor them until they give birth.

Overall, it was an enlightening and interesting experience, however I don't think you'll find me, or any of the other campers, wanting to have a dairy farm in the future.

Can't wait for the rest of the week!!

Farewell...

Hey Campers!

I have posted your Super Special Secret Mystery Surprise for you to view whenever you like! I hope you all had an amazing time at camp. I know the rest of the counselors and I enjoyed the week! Keep in touch!

Kelsey

HERPING!!!!

Thursday we went looking for hellbenders and mudpuppies in French Creek. Some of us snorkled to lift the huge flat rocks that they hide under. You have to grab them behind the head and get them into the net or bucket. Then we get them into a pvc pipe to keep them straight while we measure them. Two hellbenders that we got were 50cm!!!

Later that night we went to Bousson and got TONS of smaller salamanders from flipping over smaller rocks and logs in the stream. We got a few frogs too.

night hike geocache

wednesday night we went geocaching. because it was dark, to do this one you had to shine your flashlight on reflective stickers set on a trail leading to a 4-stickered tree, which was the last one. the prize was creek camp shirts and gummy worms and gators.

Dove Banding

This morning at creek camp, Sarah Dippold from the PA Game Commission took us to catch and

tag doves to monitor them. She set bird traps this morning and we would sneek up on them in small groups and store them in gym bags which would hold them until we could properly tag and release them with small bands on their right leg.

Vines Farm

Today we went to Vines Farm and learned about substainable farms. We got to see two donkeys, a goat, and a bunch of free range chickens. After having a tour of the farm, we ate lunch there. We had super yummy wraps and some amazing cookies.

Watershed Info.

During our picnic lunch today after our canoe trip, Brian Pilarcik from the Crawford County Conservation District spoke to us about the French Creek Watershed and explained to us why it is so diverse. They monitor the water constantly and work with farmers in the area to minimize any runoff that would enter the stream. He often speaks to groups about the stream and informs them about ways that they can help protect it so that it stays populated with many clean-freshwater species such as the muscles that filter the creek.

Using our mussels

On our canoe trip, Jerry Lang talked to us about fresh water mussels and how the effect they the French Creek watershed. They are nature's filters. After he told us about mussel he sent us off to find some.

PA Trees

Today we went to the Woodcock Natural Center and Mr. Tim Taylor explained us a lot about Pennsylvania's types of trees. Mr. Taylor explained us how trees develop in the forests and how important they are for the rest of living things.

The Dairy Farm

Today, we enjoyed our day going to the Hamilton's Dairy Farm. It was pretty funny, it smelled so weird, but we learned important aspects about farming. We watched cows being milk. We petted the calves and they sucked our hands! We learned how difficult is to run a farm, and its impacts in the creek.

CANOEING!!!

Today we learned about canoeing. To start, Chad from the PA fish&boat commision gave us a presentation on life preservers. He also taught us different canoeing techniques. Then we got to practice for a while.

Geocache

Today at creek camp, i searched for and found my first real geocache with my fellow campers. We did this by typing the coordinates of the geocache into our gps and hiking into the woods to find it. The contents were in an old ammunition box and we all deposited something small into it to show that we had found it. This was one of many geocaches in the world and hopefully someday i can find another one with my younger siblings.

mamals!

Ryan Nageotte gave us a speach about mamals near the creek!
He talked about animals sucha as beaver, muskrats, minks, weasels, river otters, racoons, bobcats, foxes and coyotes!

Owl hunting!

We went on a night hike with Dr. Mumme in search of owls. Sadly while we were hiking we didn't find any owls. So instead of wasting a perfect evening, we looked at the beautiful stars. The moment we got back to the dorms, something ironic happened. In the distince, we heard an owl hoot. So we walked acrossed the street and check in the woods for signs of an owl. Sure enough when Dr. Mumme let out a recording of a Barred owl hoot, we got a response. Using the recording, the owl was lured closer to our group. We all got to see him. He sat in a tree about ten feet away from our group. It was so cool and we all had a great end to our first full day.

electrofishing!

Upstream in woodcock creek we went electrofishing, which is when 2 guys from the fish and boat commision came with ghostbuster-pack-looking things on their back and stuck metal detector looking things in the water that stunned the animals in the water. they would become temporarily paralyzed so we could catch them. we identified many kinds of fish. we also caught a footlong mudpuppy, an aquatic salamander.

The Lorax

Our friend the Lorax

macros!

Monday we went to the downstream site and made some water chemistry tests.

We tested water temperature, pH, dissolved solids, turbidy, nitrogen and other chemical parameters which indicate quality of Woodcock Creek.

Then we went into the water with big nets and started the riffle salsa, shaking all the rocks making little bugs and organisms stick in our nets. Sadly we didn't find salamanders :(

We found bunches of Caddisflies larvae and Cameron had a hard time trying to catch a damselfly.

stream table

Today at creek camp, i had the opportunity to experiment with a stream table. We added various types of dams to see what the effects on the miniature streams and land would be. The results were surprising but tought us a lot about streams and the process of water carving its natural path through land. This was probably my favorite part of the day because i enjoyed constructing the dams and seeing the resulting catastrophies they produced when they failed.

Scavenger Hunt!!!

Sunday we used those nifty GPS locators in a scavenger hunt! We split girls against guys and of course the girls finished the hunt long before the boys got their final clue. The last clue led everyone to our treasure. Our treasure was a bag containing equipment for our other adventures.