M. Jolly-Van Bodegraven
2014

29 March     Ashland, Hockessin, Delaware

Things we learned on the mammals field trip of the naturalist certification series proved helpful with the first group I led a week later. It was about a dozen kids from about 3 to 12 and three adults. We took the same route we had for the night hike the evening before, down the steps and across the picnic area to walk around and into the marsh. We stopped to look over the marsh at the bench by the driveway and talk about what was different from the night before. Rather than the wood frogs and occasional spring peeper we had heard, the sounds in the morning were songbirds, a woodpecker and a red-winged blackbird. Although I thought we might see the blackbird - one used to sit out in the open above the marsh often last year - I never did find it, but one of the kids spotted the woodpecker almost immediately, and when we started down the trail, we came to a place where everyone could see it. I asked the kids why woodpeckers peck trees like that, and one of them knew they are looking for food. I could add that they also sometimes use the sound to communicate, advertising their presence to other woodpeckers. But I think without a doubt the best thing about the bird was that the kids got to see it, and one of them found it first. There is an element of excitement and competence that comes with finding a bird in the trees since they are often difficult to see, and it got the kids engaged in the walk early.

I made a mental note to point out the pileated woodpecker evidence on the trail when we got further along, but by the time we got over there, I had completely forgotten. Though not far, the time in-between was full as the kids found more to ask about - the blooms of skunk cabbage, some white fur on the side of the trail

When we actually neared the evidence of the pileated woodpecker, the kids’ attention was grabbed by the snow drops. Powerful little flowers, pretty on their own but eye-catching and cheering in their groups standing out against the still brown landscape of early spring. A couple of the kids actually named the snow drops as their favorite encounter of the day.

Seeing in the daylight the downed tree that had been sawed up to clear the path but otherwise untouched gave us an opportunity to talk about how even dead trees are a vital part of a natural habitat and support plant and animal life. Then we started on the boardwalk and into the marsh proper. The kids remembered the wood frog egg mass from the night before - one of them had checked it before I even turned my attention from them to the water and discovered it was now three or four times as big, which caused some excitement and seemed to make real for them what we had been telling them about the frogs the night before.

I pointed out the muskrat tunnels and browse we had seen the week before to the kids, but they were more curious about the sheen on the surface of the water. I remembered enough to tell them that while it looked like pollution, a wetland plant also exudes a kind of oil and that is what we were seeing, although I could not remember which plant, why or any other details. Something else to study before the next trip. Every time I’m out I find something else, or several somethings, that I want to learn more about before working with the next group. This is frustrating, because I want to be able to give these kids all the information they’re asking about, but more than that, it’s exciting, because it just underscores that there is always more to learn. I’ll never be able to answer every question, anyway, and if the kids leave with some new knowledge and a lot of enthusiasm to go back out and explore other wetlands, woods, fields or any natural area, that is really the result I’m hoping for.

The marsh gave us enough to explore that we actually stopped the morning hike there, taking them back to the lodge for breakfast. The program for the morning was an EcoHike anyway, so we had more opportunities to explore the woods and stream coming up.

When I collected the group for the EcoHike, the rain had picked up, which worried me a bit because they complained as it was just starting down in the marsh. But they got over it quickly and dove right in to the activities. We hiked up hawk watch hill to start. I thought it would give me an opportunity to point out the different kinds of habitat at Ashland before we hiked down hill to explore the stream. I thought it might also use some of their considerable energy to head straight up the hill, but it didn’t seem to slow them down much. I pointed out the meadows, the forests, talked about the stream and the floodplain and encouraged them to watch for different birds where we were than we had seen or heard in the marsh. They hadn’t really settled into the hike yet, though, and the highlight of the hilltop was probably just one young man opening his arms and saying, “when I see this, it just makes me happy.”

From there we walked down the driveway from the lodge to the meadow at the bottom and on to Indian Rill, where we would do the stream ecology part of the EcoHike. This always seems to get kids’ attention, although a few of them were frustrated by not having any luck with netting. But others caught a number of different larvae and even a fish, which I was much less prepared to identify than the larvae. We found mayflies and a cranefly larva, so we could talk about the water quality at Ashland being good, with the fish serving as further evidence. And while I had made an effort to get the dichotomous key in the hands of the older boys in the group because they seemed genuinely interested and I thought having them help identify things could engage all the kids, we had true need for the chart to identify an alderfly larva, which I had not come across before.

We moved on from the stream to the forest, and although the kids were starting to get tired and unhappy about the persistent rain, most of them enjoyed turning over rocks and logs looking for forest insects. We turned up centipedes, millipedes, wood roaches, and an isopod, which gave me a chance to share with the kids that while pill bugs seem utterly commonplace to us, there are actually dozens of species and some live in water. It’s a small thing and probably made little impression on them, but I remember being deeply impressed by that fact. I had never given much thought to the ubiquitous little white bugs, until I found one in the stream and had to reconsider my assumptions about the animals.

I had been happy, and a bit relieved, to catch a salamander early on in our search in the woods, figuring this was likely to be the highlight of the activity, and I saved it to show around at the end. The kids were more concerned with getting out of the rain, though, and I can’t blame them. Still, salamanders are fascinating animals, and the Eastern United States has the greatest diversity of species in the world. They are amphibians, and like frogs and toads, some live entirely in the water, other mostly on land. They can regrow lost tails and limbs, and vary from 2 to 40 inches in length, depending on the species. The salamanders to be found at Ashland tend toward the smaller end of the scale.