Question of the Week

Congratulations VCU!!!  The VCU Rams are in the Final Four!!!  Virginians are cheering for the "Cinderella" #11 seed Rams whom many said did not belong in the tournament.

Only two other teams with double-digit seeds have ever reached the Final Four.  Who were they?

And don't miss March Ratness on Thursday, March 31 (11 am) at the Science Museum of Virginia!!!  Four rats will play their own tournament - who do you think will win???

Great Backyard Bird Count

Hazel Erikson, TN, GBBC 2010

What is it?  The Great Backyard Bird Count engages bird watchers of all ages in counting birds over a 4-day period.  This annual bird population survey creates a real-time snapshot of bird populations throughout the US and Canada and helps researchers better understand birds and their behavior.

Who can do it?  You can!  Anyone may participate.  You may count birds for as little as 15 minutes or for as long as you like each day of the event.

When is it?  This weekend - Friday, February 18 through Monday, February 21.

Where do I count?  Anywhere!  Birds are all around us - your backyard, a park, a farm, or the city.  You may go to a particular place to count or you may count wherever you happen to be.

How do I report my count?  Go to the Great Backyard Bird Count website "How to Participate" page - all you need to know is there: http://www.birdsource.org/gbbc/howto.html

Enjoy your weekend and happy counting!

Question of the Week

Groundhog Day

This Wednesday, cute and cuddly Punxsutawney Phil (officially known as "Punxsutawney Phil, Seer of Seers, Sage of Sages, Prognosticator of Prognosticators, and Weather Prophet Extraordinary") will emerge (well, actually, he will be pulled) from his burrow to predict how much longer winter will last.  If he sees his shadow, we will have 6 more weeks of winter.  If he does not see his shadow, spring is on the way.

Groundhog Day was first celebrated in Pennsylvania on February 2, 1886, making this the 125th anniversary. 

Do you know why February 2 was selected as the official date?

Extra Credit:  Do you think Punxsutawney Phil will see his shadow this year?

Answer:  February 2 is approximately the middle of winter or halfway between the Winter Solstice and the Vernal Equinox.  The tradition was brought to Pennsylvania by German settlers and was originally called Candlemas Day.

In case you have not heard, Punxsutawney Phil did not see his shadow.  Will we have an early spring this year?  Only time will tell...

Question of the Week

What do you think of cold weather?  Polar bears love it!  Their thick fur coat covers a layer of insulating fat, allowing them to be quite comfortable in the frigid Arctic.

Why do you think polar bears walk at such a leisurely pace?

     a.  they are watching for thin ice

     b.  they are afraid of slipping on the ice

     c.  they get overheated when they run

     d.  they are too heavy to move faster 

Arctic Adventure, our new traveling exhibit, opens this Saturday, January 29.

Answer:  c.  they get overheated when they run.

Polar bears have more trouble with overheating than cold, especially when they run.  They are not terribly worried about falling through thin ice; they are strong swimmers and can swim for several hours in icy water.  Their feet are covered with small bumps called papillae to keep them from slipping on the ice. Even though polar bears are heavy (males weigh 500-1700 lbs. and females weigh 200-700 lbs), they can run as fast as a horse over short distances.

Odd Science 2010

Besides highly publicized science stories of 2010 (Gulf oil spill, Chilean miner rescue, bedbugs, etc.), there were some intriguing and somewhat odd science stories:

1. You think like a worm – The human brain’s center of deep thought is curiously similar to a clump of neurons inside the head of the lowly ragworm. So similar, in fact, that ragworms, which evolved 600 million years ago, probably share a common ancestor with us humans. Hmmm…

2. The shrinking moon – Lunar geologists have found cliff-like scarps on the moon that they believe formed as the moon lost heat and contracted. But don’t panic – the moon’s radius has only shrunk a few hundred feet in the last billion years. Considering its small size, though (its diameter is less than the distance from Washington, DC to San Francisco), let’s hope it doesn’t shrink too much more…

3. Dinosaurs in color – Sinosauropteryx, a chicken-size dinosaur, and was covered with spiny hair, ate meat and walked on its hind legs. Scientists examining the hair bristles under a powerful microscope discovered its tail contained melanosomes, color-bearing cell parts found in modern birds. And what color was it? Sinosauropteryx sported a chestnut and white striped tail! Cool!

4. Bowerbirds exaggerate – Male bowerbirds lure their mates with large collections of stones, shells, bones and other trinkets, even some man-made ones. Their display is usually arranged from largest to smallest, creating an optical illusion. As the female approaches, the display area appears smaller, making the male in the center appear bigger. Clever guy!

5. Rubik’s Cube decoded – Have you ever tried to solve a Rubik’s Cube? How many moves did it take you? Mathematicians have discovered that out of the 43,252,003,274,489,856,000 possible starting positions, you should never have to make more than 20 moves to solve the puzzle. Can you do it?

These 5 are just a taste; Discover magazine's current issue includes the 100 Top Stories of 2010.

http://discovermagazine.com/photos/100-top-science-stories-of-2010

"Turkey Day" Trivia

Want to wow your guests at the Thanksgiving dinner table with your incredible knowledge of turkey trivia?  Check out these "Turkey Day" facts! 

• Most farm raised turkeys are White Hollands. They cannot fly.
• An adult turkey has about 3500 feathers. Big Bird’s costume (from Sesame Street) was made from nearly 4000 white turkey feathers, dyed yellow.
• Wild turkeys can glide almost a mile without flapping their wings. Over short distances, they can fly 55 mph and run 20 mph.
• Acorns are the wild turkeys’ favorite food. Because they have a poor sense of taste and smell, they choose acorns by size and shape.
• A turkey’s head will change colors when it’s excited.
• Wild turkeys spend the night in trees.
• A male turkey is called a tom, the female is called a hen and the babies, poults. Immature turkeys are called jake (male) and jenny (female).
• How to tell toms from hens:
• Toms are larger, have longer legs and bigger heads. Their wattle (growth under the chin) and snood (fleshy growth over the bill) are also longer.
• Toms grow a beard – long black feathers on their chest. The beard grows about 4 inches per year and keeps growing throughout their lifetime. Eventually, it drags the ground.
• Male turkeys gobble and females make a clucking sound.
• During mating season, a male turkey gobbles loudly and struts around, puffing out his chest, fanning his large tail and dragging his wingtips on the ground. 
• As male turkeys get older, they fight a lot and may attack humans. 
• About 180,000 wild turkeys live in Virginia, most of them in the Tidewater, South Mountain and South Piedmont regions. 

Turkey history -

• Wild turkeys are native to the eastern US and northern Mexico.  They have lived in North America for almost 10 million years. 
• Wild turkeys were domesticated in Mexico and introduced in Europe in the 16th century. 
• In the 1700s, turkeys were walked to market and wore booties to protect their feet. 
• Ben Franklin thought the wild turkey should be our national bird instead of the bald eagle. 
• Astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin ate turkey for their first meal on the moon. 
• Wild turkeys almost became extinct in the early 1900s because of habitat destruction and overhunting. 
• The Turkey Trot was a ballroom dance popular in the early 1900s. The Turkey Trot 10K is a race run every Thanksgiving in Richmond.

Thanksgiving turkey facts –

• Over 45 million turkeys are eaten every Thanksgiving.
• The average American eats 17.5 pounds of turkey per year.
• US turkey production has increased over 300% since 1970.
• Turkey meat is low in fat and high in protein.
• White meat has fewer calories than dark meat.

Meet the Tank: Sea Stars



Science Museum of Virginia sea stars



By Meghan West

Gallery Educator

Science Museum of Virginia

In our “Beach Science: It’s a Shore Thing” exhibit we have a saltwater tank housing some sea creatures that can be found off the coast of Virginia. For those of you who have been to “Beach Science: It’s a Shore Thing” you may have already seen or even touched one of our sea stars. For those of you who have not, let me introduce you.

Sea stars, formally known as starfish, were renamed because they don’t look like a fish, don’t swim like a fish, and are not a fish. Because of this they dropped the name fish and added sea (same thing happened to sea jellies, formerly known as jellyfish). They are in the phylum echinodermata, which means spiny skin and anyone who has touched one or even handled a dead one can feel the bumpy, spiny skin. They are in the same phylum as sea urchins and sand dollars, even though they don’t look a lot alike.

Strange creatures are our sea stars; they have no blood, no brains, and if we chop them up, as long as there is a fifth left, they will grow everything back. As for the no brains thing, anyone who has seen “SpongeBob SquarePants” can attest that Patrick Star, SpongeBob’s best friend, is not the sharpest knife in the drawer. Comedy is not the only reason Patrick is a little slow on the uptake. The creator of SpongeBob, Stephen Hillenburg, taught marine biology at Orange County Ocean Institute in California and puts weird facts like that into the story and characters. Sea stars actually have something going on upstairs, but it’s just a nerve ring instead of a brain.

Breathing is another thing that our dear sea stars don’t do like most of the creatures we come in contact with. They absorb sea water through a small dot normally located somewhere on the top facing side of the sea star; this is called a madreporite. The water they absorb is used in their circulatory system (yes, you read that right, sea water being used for blood). While they have the water they might as well make the most of it and absorb the oxygen out of it.

For vision the sea star uses a tiny dot on the end of each arm to see. If you find a sea star large enough you may notice the tiny dot (it looks like someone put the point of a highlighter on the very tip of the arm). Their vision is not like ours and is more like dark and light (sun’s out - sun’s not out).

To get around, the sea star uses its arms with hundreds of little, tiny tube feet on each arm. None of the arms are dominant. Our Forbes Sea Stars have 5 arms each and have been clocked at a whopping five inches a minute! That is a sea star run! Full speed, petal to the metal, run! (That’s .005 mph.) When you don’t have to run down your food and most things don’t want to eat you or will only take a bite that you will grow back, speed is not a major concern. Their favorite food is most bivalves (animals with 2 shells) like oysters, mussels, and clams. The creatures that they are most concerned about avoiding are crabs, bottom dwelling fish, sea gulls, sea urchins, lobsters and (be surprised) humans.

To eat, the sea star wraps its arms with tube feet around a bivalve. The bivalve slams shut; it doesn’t want to get eaten. After roughly 10 hours the amount of pressure the sea star exerts on the bivalve forces it open, just a little bit. Then the sea star takes its stomach out through its mouth and begins to eat the squishy inside of the bivalve. When the sea star finally removes itself from the bivalve all that is left is shell (licked clean!). Mussels are easily the favorite food of the sea stars in our tank. I am not sure if it’s because they are easier to open or if it’s the fact that they prefer the taste. Our sea stars go through about a pound of mussels in a week. With some of the larger clams in the tank, our sea stars appear to attack them in a group, which amazes me since they have no brain. So I wonder - can they organize? Is it instinct? Communication beyond our understanding? We may never know.

Mysteries of the ocean are being unfolded every day. Remember we know more about the planet Venus than we do about our own oceans. Till the next “Meet the Tank”, take care.

Question of the Week

What are you afraid of?  Snakes, spiders, heights, loud noises?

For me, I am ok with snakes and spiders, although I am not fond enough of either to have one as a pet.

One animal that really creeps me out, though - crickets.  Perhaps I had one too many experiences with them as a child.  Growing up in a rural area surrounded by farms was wonderful - until fall when the field crickets invaded.  Generally, you can't see them but you can certainly hear them.  They can sing their little hearts out, especially in the middle of the night.  Sometimes it's so annoying that going after them is the only solution.  However, you can follow that infernal noise only so far.  They are incredibly adept at sensing when you are hot on the trail - instant silence.  Finding a silent cricket in the dark is very, very tricky.  But if you get lucky and manage to find the noisy  critter, then... Have you ever tried to kill a cricket?  They hop in 12 directions at once, and if you smush him - YUK!  Cricket guts go everywhere!

So, no, I am not fond of crickets.  You might say I have cricketaphobia.  Now what are you afraid of?

Good-bye, ospreys! See you next year...

If you spend much time on the Virginia coast, the high-pitched call of the osprey is a familiar sound. In fact it’s so familiar that it’s often taken for granted …until it’s gone. I love fall with its cool sunny days and blue, blue skies, but I am always a little sad when the ospreys leave. Around mid- September, the ospreys who summer on the Chesapeake Bay disappear. Where do they go?

Dr. Richard O. Bierregaard, Jr. knows! He has been studying ospreys for over 40 years. In 2000, in collaboration with Dr. Mark Martell, he began installing GPS tracking devices on young ospreys to track their migration patterns, including several from the Chesapeake Bay region. Ospreys have been tracked to winter quarters in the Caribbean, Central and South America, as far south as Peru! His tagged birds have names and his website is updated regularly with their progress. By September 12, three birds, Penelope, Sr. Bones and Thatch (Thatch is from Delaware) had begun the long and perilous journey south. Gunny left on September 19 and arrived in Virginia Beach on Tuesday. Other tagged birds, including Neale, Sanford and North Fork Bob, should be leaving soon. To follow their progress, go to: http://www.bioweb.uncc.edu/bierregaard/migration10.htm.  I have to admit that following these birds as they make their way south and, hopefully, back north again could become an addiction.

If they survive the journey and winter, they will return around mid-March to nest near the area where they were born. Ospreys begin mating at three years of age and will often mate for life. Nests consist of bulky piles of sticks on navigational markers, duck blinds, utility poles or high up in a pine tree, but always near the water. Females usually lay three eggs in mid-April to late May.  By July, the fledglings fly from the nest and begin to practice their steep dives to catch fish.

Ospreys are sometimes confused with bald eagles. It’s certainly easy to do – ospreys look remarkably similar to both juvenile and adult bald eagles. Here’s a brief primer to tell them apart: ospreys are dark brown or black with white underparts, a broad black eye stripe and a black patch on the underside of the wings. Adult bald eagles have white heads and tails but dark underparts, while juvenile bald eagles are all brown or mottled brown and white all over. Ospreys are slightly smaller than bald eagles and fly with their wings "crooked" in an M shape, whereas bald eagles fly with their wings in a flat line.

We are fortunate here in the Chesapeake Bay region to have the largest nesting population of ospreys in the world, over 2000 pairs which accounts for 25% of the US population. While they are wintering in warmer climes, I hope to follow the travels of Penelope, Sr. Bones, Thatch and Gunny and will eagerly await their return in the spring!

A Webworm Horror Story

Last Sunday I decided to enjoy the beautiful fall weather and eat my lunch outside. About halfway through my sandwich, I glanced up to see something fuzzy crawling down my bangs onto my nose – UGH! It was a fall webworm – you know, those nasty hairy caterpillars whose giant webs appear on tree branches every fall? There seems to be a bumper crop this year – caterpillars are crawling on everything: across yards, along sidewalks, up walls, on decks and porches… you get the picture. When I went outside to eat, I purposely positioned my chair away from the trees to avoid them (and to avoid the occasional falling walnut – ouch!). This fellow found me anyway and sort of put me off my lunch.


Description of Damage
In the grand scheme of things, fall webworms do not do a tremendous amount of permanent damage, although the webs are definitely unsightly. Caterpillars feed on leaves inside the webs, gradually enclosing more foliage as they grow. Heavy infestations may defoliate a tree but rarely kill it. Over 100 species of trees play host to these voracious pests, but here in central Virginia, they seem to prefer nut and fruit trees, such as walnut, pecan, cherry and crabapple.

Life cycle

The adult moth is snow white, often with dark spots, and somewhat hairy (not surprising, considering the caterpillar). They lay their eggs on the underside of leaves in May through July. The larvae hatch in about 2 weeks and immediately begin to spin webs and feed on leaves. Pupation occurs after 4 to 6 weeks of spinning and feeding and can usually be found in leaf litter or just below the surface of the soil. In the South, we are especially lucky - we get at least 2 generations per year!

Control
Control is not necessary; however, you may not be able to tolerate the unsightly mess. If you do decide to take action, mechanical control is best. When you can reach them, prune branches containing webs and destroy them. Chemical control must be done when webs and larvae are small, no later than July, but it is not necessary. If you are lucky, birds and other natural predators may come to your yard and do the job for you!

Just remember – do not eat lunch under the webworm tree…

For more information, go to http://pubs.ext.vt.edu/2808/2808-1013/2808-1013.html

Dive into Deep Sea

By Ben Remo
Science Museum of Virginia intern

Deep under the surface of the world’s oceans is a whole other dimension of life that one has to see to believe. Humans have always been fascinated with the ocean and creatures of the seas. The new IMAX movie, Deep Sea delivers to that curiosity by giving audiences an up-close look at the most bizarre and intriguing sea creatures in existence.


You will be introduced to odd creatures like the mantis shrimp and the Humboldt squid. Usually when you see any ecosystem based documentary, you recognize some of the animals. However, in this film I rarely saw an animal that I recognized. The tiger shark was the only animal in Deep Sea that I could easily identify. Every other animal in the film was new to my eyes. I was fascinated throughout the movie because most of the material was new to me. Your eyes will be glued to the screen as you watch a sun starfish navigate the ocean floor trying to catch sea scallops and you will wonder how the star ever gets to enjoy a solid meal. This and other interesting sea creature stories make the educational film irresistible.

Most IMAX movies can take us to a different place or time. This IMAX movie takes the audience to a different environment all together. Narrated by well known actors Johnny Depp and Kate Winslet, the film showcases beautiful views of the most unique fish in the sea. Depp and Winslet give a play by play on predator and prey relationships as well as how marine life helps one another survive. For example, sea turtles will swim for miles to get a “shell wash” from the reef fish. The fish swim with the turtle eating the algae off its enormous shell. The narrators excel working together to explain the unique relationships and rivalries of the sea.

While there are literally thousands of underwater documentaries out there, and believe me I feel like I have seen them all after my high school oceanography class, this is the most interesting underwater video I have ever seen. It introduces education to entertainment in a way I have never seen before. The clear video and interesting situations will reach out and grab anybody, child or adult, and make them pay attention throughout the 45 minute film.

The star powered narration certainly helps out but the sights are really what set this one apart from the rest. The colorful and at times intense scenes make it hard to pull your eyes away. Throughout the movie, we visit a fried egg jellyfish with a 30 foot tentacle span, an eel with a fishing pole type contraption on its forehead, millions of plankton, and a coral reef built around a sunken ship. This is not just another fish documentary; it takes the audience so much deeper, literally and figuratively.

Words do not do it justice; you really have to see some of these things to believe them.

The Chesapeake Bay “Ouch” Forecast

Have you met Chrysaora quinquecirrha? If you’ve spent time in the Chesapeake Bay in the summertime, you probably have. His more familiar name is sea nettle, and he is not one of the most pleasant fellows you will ever meet. The sea nettle is a large sea jelly, a semi-transparent bell-shaped invertebrate with long stinging tentacles. Chrysaora quinquecirrha lives along the Atlantic Coast south of Cape Cod. Like many of us, he loves the Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries and can be seen in greater abundance here than anywhere else on the East Coast.
Getting tangled up with a sea nettle is not a fun experience. Those long tentacles contain thousands of microscopic nematocysts; upon contact the nematocysts fire a stinging filament into the victim. Sea nettle stings are not fatal but do cause a burning sensation and a painful rash. People often carry a bottle of meat tenderizer in their beach bags to counteract the sting, but plain vinegar works just as well. Vinegar prevents unfired nematocysts from firing thus preventing further discomfort.
Want to know how to avoid this unpleasant fellow? This summer NOAA is experimenting with sea nettle forecasting. Their website (http://chesapeakebay.noaa.gov/forecasting-sea-nettles) includes a map predicting the probability of encountering one, based primarily on water temperature and salinity. Sea nettles prefer water temperatures between 25° and 30°C (77° - 86°F) and salinity between 10 and 20 parts per thousand. Unfortunately for those of us who love it, the Chesapeake Bay is an ideal sea nettle habitat. So next time you head to the bay or the “Rivah” to swim or water ski, check out NOAA’s sea nettle prediction map. That way, you will know whether or not to pack the meat tenderizer.

Flying Squirrels Play Baseball?

Play ball! It’s Opening Day at the Diamond! Today Richmond welcomes its new baseball team, the Richmond Flying Squirrels, with a sold-out Diamond! So why Flying Squirrels???
Well, flying squirrels are rather cute! And Virginia boasts 2 species: the Northern Flying Squirrel, whose range includes a few isolated high altitude locations (it is more common in states farther north) and the Southern Flying Squirrel, whose range includes the entire state except its westernmost tip.
Flying squirrels are nocturnal so they are rarely seen by humans. Their eyes are quite large to help them see in the dark. They spend most of their time high up in trees but come to the ground occasionally to hunt for food. Their predators are creatures of the night, including owls, raccoons, weasels, coyotes and domestic cats.
Flying squirrels do not actually fly but glide. Gliding is facilitated by the patagium, a flap of skin between the front and hind legs, which acts as a sort of parachute when the squirrel jumps from a tree. The patagium contains muscles that hold it taut while gliding and keep it close to the body while at rest. The fur on the patagium is short to reduce air flow resistance or drag.
A flying squirrel’s diet includes mast crops (acorns, hickory nuts, pecans, walnuts), seeds, insects, snails, plant buds and flowers, fruit, fungi, tree bark and sap. Flying squirrels are “scatter hoarders,” often stashing small quantities of nuts in tree notches and in shallow digs under leaf litter and logs. Southern Flying Squirrels are also known to store larger quantities of nuts and other “goodies” in "larder cavities."
For shelter, flying squirrels use several types of nests. The most common nest type is the cavity nest, often a natural tree cavity or a tree cavity made and then abandoned by another animal. In summer, flying squirrels often use outside nests called “dreys,” which are usually made of plant material. Aggregate nests are often used in winter. Flying squirrels are the most social of all squirrel species and they do not hibernate; therefore, to keep warm in winter, they will gather in a communal or aggregate nest for warmth. Other nesting sites may include birdhouses, stacked firewood and attics. We had flying squirrels living in our attic for a couple of winters until we figured out how to humanely “evict” them, but that is a story for another day…

Most of this material came from http://www.flyingsquirrels.com/ , an excellent source for almost anything you’d like to know about flying squirrels. Information more specific to Virginia can be found at http://www.dgif.virginia.gov/wildlife/information/?s=050068 and http://www.dgif.virginia.gov/wildlife/information/?s=050065.

Our last day... all business

Welllll.... mostly business.

We began firming up plans for our grant proposals: Fauzia and Steve's ideas for stream monitoring projects; Terry and Deborah's plans for baseline surveys to use in planning for school construction; Bryan's thoughts on doing a stream restoration; Amy and Dana's desires to do something more with conservation gardens; Lee's plans to build a nature trail; Eric and Jeanine's different ideas for using real data from from their studies in math classes....

It wasn't all work; we ate ice cream (thank you, Lee!) and fooled around with hissing roaches... Bryan thinned his herd, so Lee's kids will have some creepy classroom pets this year! And Gene and I were ambushed by everyone... thanks for the presents and the sweet card (sniff...)

So, where are we now? We have a big list of "to-dos" for the next months! We'll be contacting local government offices to get information on existing monitoring stations and projects. We'll be looking at how our projects fit in with bigger school and community plans, and begin writing lessons that will cover standards and use best practices. We'll begin to decide what new equipment we'll need to do our projects. And I'll be here at the Museum, your "go-to" girl, helping with resources as we start writing proposals.

Just not this week. I'm on vacation!

Day 4: Nature in the City

(Or, “another day, another macroinvertebrate”)

We loaded up and headed off deep into the wilds of… Alexandria.

Traffic wasn’t too bad! We made decent time getting to the Cameron Run, a 4th order stream in an industrial area with a LOT of human impacts. Think runoff and flooding, channelization, sewage and pollutants (ick.) But many of our fishies and bugs are resilient: even in these rather cruddy conditions, some organisms thrive.



Our first survey of the day was at a section of the Cameron Run between two railway bridges. The lower bridge has a definite Planet of the Apes post-apocalyptic feel, complete with overgrown vine-girded tunnels.



By now, everyone knows the routine. We suited up, grabbed gear, and hopped into the Cameron Run.


We electrofished.

We found lots of fish… there were many larger fish in this stream.

We measured and recorded physical and chemical characteristics.



We searched (and searched) for macroinvertebrates; we found lots of worms.


Oh, and we hung out under a bridge.

After visiting the animal shelter to avail ourselves of the restrooms (and to make goo-goo eyes at the kittens) we hopped into the truck and the van and headed for our second site, the 3rd-order Holmes Run.




This creek is in a park, but still has many of the same issues as the Cameron Run. There are sewage and storm drain outfalls dumping into it. Upstream, the banks are clad in concrete, turning the streambed into a giant culvert. The water here is smelly and the rocks are coated with algae.




We did shocking-ID-counting-measuring-recording-collecting. There are environmental problems in this waterway, but some animals can live here. This shallow, cobble-strewn creek just can’t support a very diverse community. We found just a few species of small fishes and inverts (Gene and I have found this pattern each time we’ve sampled this site!)

After packing up the gear for the last time, tired and grubby and hungry, we went to my favorite restaurant, El Tipico, for a late but well-appreciated lunch.


Terry is afraid that the starving Deborah may eat her...


Jeanine is having a cheese malfunction...


And Amy is just glad that she could wash the amoebas off her hands!

Another evening of talking and planning and sharing resources and stories… but for some reason we were all so exhausted that we headed off to bed by 10:00. Maybe it has something to do with staying up until after 1:00 the night before…?

Day three: in the creek! posted by Steve Fenchell

The morning began with a quick dash for coffee at the local Starbucks. After some light conversation about our personal teaching positions we headed out at approximately 8:30 am. We met with Kaitlyn and Chris from the SCA at the National Park, for the second day, to continue our monitoring of the pristine streams found in Prince William County.

Shortly after we drove to our first stream, which was a level two. We began electrofishing and exploring for more macroinvertebrates. We found many organisms, thanks to Gene helping us improve our techniques.

From this stream, we gathered for a brief lunch then we were quickly out to explore our next stream.

Mid-day we arrived at our boundary stream and were greeted by quite a potent odor...
After a short walk through a thorny "path", we turned around... thanks Gene... to find a reasonable opening to the stream. We were already suited up and began trekking through the slippery stream trying to balance ourselves and catch the many small fish getting zapped.

Splash!!! Jeanine took a spill, but luckily she was quickly back on her feet with the electroshocking pack. We found about 14 species of fish, switched out the waders and began digging for more macroinvertebrates. Many small critters, until Lee came across a Helgrammite that would give anyone the creepy crawlies... straight out of a 50's horror film.

After packing up, we headed back to the hotel to sort and ID. We were all able to preserve some representative inverts to show our students, then we cleaned up, and headed out for dinner. We decided on a small Thai restaurant, but were surprised with a "Closed Due to the Economy" sign. We walked to the Japanese restaurant next door, and were in for a great treat... Lee was the champ again as he caught some flying shrimp right in his mouth (others were close).

After dinner we decided to take a look at the used-book store, remember your 3-Rs! After a few great finds (I bought a collection of essays about global water issues and another Michael Pollan book) we headed back for a group discussion and a little social time!

Day Two:first day in the Field. Dana D'Agostino posting

Our first day in the field saw us piling into the caravan of vehicles, headed for Prince William Forest Park. We pulled off next to the stream and gathered our gear; waders, dip nets, pH meter, clipboards and the backpack electroshocker.

We trooped through the woods to our first test site; a third order stream. The weather was hot and humid, with a few clouds in the sky. We all made sure to cover ourselves with bug spray and sunscreen. Gene and his crew began our expedition by working downstream, shocking and collecting the fish.

Summer's group trailed behind, collecting physical parameters including stream depth, pH, stream width and stream flow. We recorded our data and moved downstream, collecting at three separate sites. While this site is considered "pristine", we made note of debris that littered the stream, including glass and plastic on the banks.

Everyone was fascinated by the variety of fish caught in our nets. Using the dip nets, we traipsed through the water, swishing and swirling, attempting to gather as many macroinvertebrates as we could. Specimens were transferred to collection jars, to be identified later.

Following a short break, we switched teams and began surveying a second order stream. It was interesting to note the difference in diversity between the two streams. Fewer species were found in the second order vs. the third order. The stream was also narrower and the flow was a bit slower.

By 12:30, we were ready to call it a day and head off in search of food. We went to Wegman's and indulged ourselves in the great variety of choices; sushi, pizza, subs, Chinese and Thai buffet, panini, salads, etc. Once our hunger was satiated, we piled back into the vehicles to return to our hotel.

In the breakfast room at the Holiday Inn, we laid out our tools to ID our macroinvertebrates. Pans, dissecting scopes, forceps and probes along with several liters of isopropyl alcohol. Specimens were sorted into trays and then identified with the aid of the dissecting scopes and Gene's expertise.

Dinner was at the local Mexican restaurant. Everyone enjoyed the tacos, burritos, enchiadas and salsa. Our waitress appeared to be a neophyte; she seemed flummoxed by the large group of people and kept running back and forth fetching ice and drinks and things she forgot.

Back to the hotel to listen to our guest speaker; Laura Grape from the North Virginia Regional Comission (http://www.novaregion.org/index.aspx?NID=8) She spoke to us about global warming and land use with an emphasis on sea level rise. How will residents deal with a projected rise in sea level of up to 5'? Will insurance rates rise so much that no one will be able to afford to live on the coastline? Will properties be abandoned as more and more coastline is gobbled up by the rising water levels?

After a verrrrry long day, we all bid each other good night and headed off to our respective rooms. Another long day awaited us in the morning and we needed to catch up on our sleep in order to be ready for more field work the next day.