Attempting to canoe

Learing how to canoe was interesting. Everyone was running into one another trying to go straight. Watching everyone attempting to canoe was pretty funny. Once most people got the hang of it a couple races broke out. Most people got the hang of it, but a couple were all over the lake. Hopefully the canoe trip tomorrow will go a little better.

We  got the nets and went into the water. We kicked around for 3 minutes then brought the net onto land. Then we looked for all of the macroinvertebrates but didn't find as much as yesterday. We loved finding all of the big crayfish.

French Creek

Today we went to the French Creek. While there we walked around in the creek and explored. We looked around and lifted up rocks and found crayfish, fish, and mussels. We all had a really good time.

Owl Hunting

We left our apartment with Doctor Mumme and went hunting for owls. We went to a small forest and saw our firsts owls, they were quite big and fast. Later we went to the campus and saw another species of owls, these were smaller than the others.These ones had yellow eyes and they were very small.

Water Chem

This morning we went to the Upstream of Woodcock! We had to take an A and B sample of the water by going into the water and scooping it up. Then everyone got into groups and picked a kit to use. Some of the kits tested temperature, pH, TDS (total dissolved solids), and turbidity. It was so fun and we found that our water was fair. 

Mad Boring Skills

Today, we went out to the woods with Penn's Woods reps Stacia and Nicole, to determine the age of some of the trees on their lot. It may not sound interesting at first, but it really was a blast! We pretty much ferociously bore holes into trees (they'll be OK, I promise!) and pulled out a little cylinder of tree matter. It's like when someone chops a tree down to count rings, except it doesn't kill the trees. And, it looks a lot more cool. And... we saw a fish. It was in the creek by the forest that we were in. We were plotting to catch it with our totallyunrelatedmadtreeskills.

Electrofishing

Today, a guy named Jay took us up the creek to teach us how to shock fish and then catch them. We had a lot of fun slipping all over the rocks trying to catch them. It seemed like everyone was getting really into it, even though we killed a few... Luis even had the guts to let a crayfish latch onto his ear!

Having fun at the stream table!!

This afternoon we went to the Alden geology building and Professor Reiss taught us about different parts of the river and how it works, it was very interesting. The stream table had sand and water in it which we got to play with for a while. We made dams, mountains, islands and we had a lot of fun! We made a great dam and then we destroyed it. It was great!

Water Chemistry

This morning on July 9, 2012 we did some water chemistry in the creek. First we did some water sampling so we can do alkalinity tests or the water's ability to resist change in pH. Lastly, I thought it was a pretty nice expanding my Knowlegde in Chemistry.  (DS Creek Camp 2012)

Yay for Macroinvertebrates!!!

Today we went downstream of Woodcock Dam to check the water quality and chemistry in addition to searching for macroinvertebrates.  The diversity of macroinvertebrates signify how healthy a stream is.  We found some neat little critters.  There were a lot of cranefly larva, some water beetle larva, and there were even two small crayfish among other creatures.  There is then a system that assigns values to the different macros based on whether they live in healthy, fair, or poor water.  The value that we got told us that the water was of fair quality.  The tests for water quality also came back with pretty decent results.  We checked the temperature, pH, total dissolved solids, turbidity, dissolved oxygen, alkalinity, nitrates and phosphates.  Tonight we get to go hunt owls in a cemetery so wish us luck:)

Dam Time

It was cool learning about the dam and its functions. It was amazing how long and high the dam was. Walking out on it was fun. It was scary looking over the railings. It was so cool learning about how the dam works and how the creek flows through it. Learning about how the dam releases certain amounts of water for different times of the year was cool. Looking over the balcony at the lake was pretty cool, but scary.

Geocaching Campus Tour

For geocaching we were given GPS's and a coordinate to start. We used the GPS and coordinates to find a location where another coordinate was waiting to lead us to another location. We repeated this several times while guides informed us about the campus. The coordinates eventually led back to the start where we received a drawstring bag, headlight, shirt, and a towel.

Creek Connections would like to thank all the campers that came to Allegheny last week. We all had a great time and enjoyed getting to know the campers. We learned a lot from you!. This past week was another creek camp success!!

Da nanananananana nananana... BATS!

Bats are really cool animals. They are even cuter up close. Normally, animals are made more adorable by drawings and stuff, but with bats it's the opposite. Drawings of bats never do them justice. The little squeaky noises they make are even cuter!! I want to get a pet bat that will sit on my head, that would be nice. I found it interesting that according to Terry people seem to have become less afraid of bats in recent years, and to be honest I have to think that that has something to do with the return of the batman movies, etc. In any case, I want some bats for my backyard. Especially the really pretty silver ones.

Canoeing in French Creek

     Yesterday we took a three hour canoe trip in French Creek. It was a great experience to be able to have a great time with friends while experiencing amazing wildlife. Although maneuvering the canoe became challenging at times, it was always enjoyable to slow down and take a look at the diverse landscape of plants and animals. We even spotted a couple bald eagles! Along the way, we stopped at rocky banks to look for and discuss freshwater muscles and invasive species. We also ended up finding a couple of mud puppies along the way! We then stopped to cool off for a squirt gun fight and a nice swim. We had a great time canoeing and I am sure we will always remember the fun times we had!

While on our canoe trip, we went searching for freshwater mussels! We scanned the banks for the 26 different types of mussels in french Creek. We kept an eye out for zebra mussels, which campers found last year. Zebra mussels are an invasive species that latch on to other mussels and often kill them. Unfortunately, we did not find any while canoeing, although we found some later when we went on our Herp Hunt.

Hellbender Wrestling

We hunted for Hellbenders and got 10 that were recorded and probably a couple that were not. They were cute and very interesting. We also found Mudpuppies and a load of crayfish.

herp intro

The herp intro was very interesting. We learned a lot about amphibians and reptiles. The best part was when we got to hold real snakes. The snakes felt very strange, but they were very cool and they did not bite. I also liked feeding the box turtle. when we gave him food, he would look at it curiously before eating it. The herp intro was very cool to me.

Catching Hellbenders

At French Creek, we caught wild hellbenders, the largest species of salamander in North America.  We split into two groups for finding hellbenders.  We found them by lifting up large, flat rocks to see if there were any under the rocks.  There were a lower amount of hellbenders than expected.  Once a hellbender was located, we used nets to capture them, and we then examined them.  We learned how to determine a hellbender's sex.  Males have heads that are broader than their shoulders, and females have heads that are narrower than their shoulders.  We also noticed various scars on some of the hellbenders.  We learned how to hold the hellbenders properly, because their slimy bodies make it easy for them to escape from our clutches.  The hellbenders were then released.  After handling the slimy amphibians, we used bleach to sanitize our hands.  In total, around 20 hellbenders were caught.

Macro-invertebrates Day 2

Today we took a trip to the upstream (before the Woodcock Dam) part of Woodcock creek.The micro-invertebrates we found in this part of the creek were far different in variety and number compared to the downstream (after the Woodcock Dam) part. It was very interesting to see how a stream can be effected by a dam including the animals that live in and around it. To catch some of the micro-invertebrates in the stream we split up into groups of three. Then we held a kick net in the water and kicked up the water in front of it to loosen the dirt and rocks. This allowed the animals to swim right into the net so we could take it out of the water and observe them. We compared the animals to discuss which ones were more susceptible to pollution and how they would adapt to live in a stream. We found many different macro-invertebrates including hellgrammites, water pennies, and dragonfly nymphs.