Eco-explorations Camp at the North Central Research and Outreach Center in Grand Rapids
Jennifer: “Hello, this is Jennifer from the Bell Museum calling in from the NCROC, the North Central Research and Outreach Center on the east side of Grand Rapids. During the week of August 5-8, 2024, our Eco-Explorations Campers spent much time outside bird watching and bog walking and pressing plants for herbarium submission.
“They also learned about telemetry with some real-life DNR wildlife biologists. They tracked an animal collar using a radio transmitter, antenna receiver map and a compass. Another wildlife biologist from the USDA taught us so much about the mammals that live around Grand Rapids by using their pelts and skull.
“Our bog walk resulted in many new discoveries, including a new slime mold! This one is what we believe to be tapioca slime mold, Brefeldia maxima. We found it in the NCROC bog in three different locations. Its color is white with the texture of creamy rice spreading over an area of about 4 inches by 3 inches in each location. Here are some student reports discussing more of the exciting things that we found.”
Ellie: “Hello, my name is Ellie. We went to the bog on August 7, 2024. A bog is a place to see in many places. Things that I saw were a spider [and] I seen a ghost pipe: it sounds kind of creepy. A ghost pipe is not an animal, it's a parasite.”
Kaylee: “My name is Kaylee and we were in the bog. We saw gopher holes and a den for a fox or a badger. We thought we saw a white slime mold. We also found ghost pipe, mushrooms, frogs, and the Black-capped Chickadee. It was fun!”
Scarlet: “Hello, my name is Scarlet, and Pete came to our camp and taught us about mammals. He brought skulls and furs. He talked about the weasel family, which is pine marten and fisher, and otter, and mink. And the canid family: a gray fox, a red fox, a coyote, and a gray wolf. And that is all. And he also talked about rodents, which is a beaver. And then felids, which is a bobcat and lynx. Lynx has bigger feet than a bobcat and long ear tufts.
Nina: “Hello, my name is Nina. Today I went to the bog. We saw tons of plants. We also went on a trailer to get there. I loved the trailer. It was really fun! When we got there, we saw a lot of birds and we saw some kind of white, mushy thing. It was really cool. There was one tree that if you touched it, it would shake.”
Neil: “Hello, my name is Neil, and we went bug sweep netting. To sweep net, take the sweep net and move it downward, then up again in an arc. One of the cool things I saw was a jumping spider. This spider doesn't spin webs. The specimen has eight legs. The legs are gold-brownish with black bands. There's a horizontal black stripe above the eye. The stripe looks like a unibrow. Most of the body is brownish-gray. Size anywhere from one-eighth of an inch to three-fourths of an inch.”
Kerri: “Hi, my name is Kerri and I love the bog. We rode on a trailer down to the bog on August 7, 2024. The ride was very bumpy, but it was fun. We saw lots of cool plants. We saw pitcher plants and mushrooms, and some slimy white slime mold. I also found two tiny froglets. One was tan and about 1 centimeter long. The second one had a green, black, and yellow pattern on its back. The tan one I found in the bog hopping on the moss. The other one I found hopping along the path. There was also a lot of moss that was so soft, I wanted to make a bed out of it. We found lots of ghost pipes. They were really beautiful.”
Long Lake Conservation Center near Palisade
This report is brought to you by Sophia, Izzy and the students from Ponemah School who visited Long Lake.
“The high temperature was 76 degrees, and the low was 51.
“We noticed many things in nature during our visit: tiny wood frogs, grasshoppers, garter snakes, swans, weeds and leeches in the shallow part of the lake, and squirrels eating green pine cones.
“Flowers blooming are lilies, bee balm, daisies, Jerusalem artichokes and wonderful-smelling milkweed.
“We saw bumblebees and goldfinches on the thistle blooms.
“It was a great time in nature, and we want everyone to remember to unplug, get outside and LIVE CONNECTED!”
This report is brought to you by Talula, James and the stargazers from Astronomy Camp who visited Long Lake August 8-11.
“The high temperature was 76 degrees, and the low was 48.
“We spent our days having terrestrial fun and our evenings exploring the stars. Our group heard coyotes howling at night, saw a few busy chipmunks and went waist deep in the bog.
“At night, we were lucky to have clear skies to enjoy the Perseid Meteor Shower. It wasn’t quite at the peak of one meteor per minute, but we saw lots and lots, including some really bright ones. Other night sky sightings included a really clear view of the Milky Way, craters on the quarter crescent moon, the Big Dipper, Saturn and two of its moons, the Omega and Dumbbell Nebula, and the Whirlpool and Swan Galaxies.
“We were looking for a nova explosion in the star system called T Coronae Borealis, but it didn’t happen during our camp. It’s supposed to happen soon. Our group also got to look at the sun through a solar telescope and saw sunspots that were larger than the Earth.
“Members of the Minnesota Astronomical Society let us use their GIANT telescopes and guide us. Thanks!
“Day or night, it’s always a great time to explore nature and we want everyone to remember to unplug, get outside and LIVE CONNECTED!”
Sugar Lake Lodge
“Hi, my name is Wyn and I am 10 years old and I am from Andover, Minn. We went on a nature hike, and we saw some green frogs and we saw water shrews - two of them - but they were dead.
"We saw the touch-me-not (that was the ones with the seeds that explode.) And then we saw some cool species of trees.
"We also saw the common milkweed beetle. And we saw the painted turtles and the snapping turtles and those are really cool. We saw spruce trees, we saw pine trees, and balsam fir trees.
Jennifer at the Bell Museum/NCROC
Jennifer, the leader of the Eco-Explorations camp at the NCROC, sent this kind message along with this week’s phenology report:
“We had a fantastic week at camp! It was also our last camp of the summer.
“Everyone wants to tell their phenology reports now. We listened to the last camp's phenology report in class, and everyone thought it was crazy that those reporters were now famous!
“I've also attached only a few of the hundreds of photos I took this week. Seriously - it was a great week of outdoors science. Kids love this stuff!
“Please tell John hello, and that I'm so glad he talked to me about this program. I think I'm hooked!"
What have you seen out there? Let us know: email us at comments@kaxe.org or text us at 218-326-1234.
That does it for this week! For more phenology, subscribe to our Season Watch Newsletter or visit the Season Watch Facebook page.
Funding for this project was provided by the Minnesota Environment and Natural Resources Trust Fund as recommended by the Legislative-Citizen Commission on Minnesota Resources (LCCMR).
