Wading in the Water

Today, the Urban Naturalists explored the water quality and biodiversity at Powder Mill Ledges Refuge in Smithfield, RI. To do this, we had to learn how to use some new tools: waders! Waders are a large pair of rubber boots and pants that allows someone to be able to walk waist high into water. This allows the scientists to be able to explore the biodiversity deeper in the body of water rather than just on the edge. While some students tried out the waders, others chose to just check out some of the neat critters along the edge. 

Success! 

Strapping Mr. Who in! 

Some of the students checking out the critters along the edge

Brave Emily was next! 

Look at her go! 

We even had students try out some big rubber boots
to get just a little bit farther into the water

Caught something!

Peregrine Falcon Babies!

The Peregrine Falcons nesting in Providence finally have some puffy babies! Check out the two new chicks that have hatched this week at http://www.asri.org/general-conservation-info/providence-peregrine-falcon-webcam.html and watch them grow!

To learn more about Peregrine Falcons, click here for some information.

Here is a grainy photo of Momma Peregrine feeding some of the babies!

What's in the Water?

Today, the Urban Naturalists did some pond scooping to discover what types of things are found in the water at Roger Williams Park. Assessing what plants and animals we find in the water can tell us how clean it is. To do this, we used nets to scoop up "muck" off the bottom of the pond and sifted through to see what critters were common in the water.

We found some type of eggs on many of the leaves! Here is a shot of them through a microscope. It was hard to photograph them, but we talked about how microscopes aided us in our discoveries this day.

Wood Ducks!

We talked about Wood Duck ducklings and how they jump out of trees to stay with their mother just a few days after being born! Here's a video of this event: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JkBSkFyUyv0

Analyzing ASRI Powder Mill Ledges

On Wednesday, the Urban Naturalists analyzed the land at ASRI Powder Mill Ledges in Smithfield. We found quite a few more animals and plants on the refuge!

Check out this little guy! He's got FABULOUS camouflage! 

Just loving nature! 

Analyzing Roger Williams Park

On Monday, the Urban Naturalists analyzed areas in Roger Williams Park using a scientific measurement called Transects. Transects help us collect data about a large piece of land by focusing on a snapshot of the area. We section off a 2 ft. x 2 ft. square in a field and collect data about that plot. We then use Google Maps to find the measurable area of the entire field we collected some data in. With this information, we are able to multiply out our smaller plot of land we analyzed into the measurement of the whole field. This gives us an idea of what we can expect to find in the park!

What percent of our plot is grass? Rocks? Dirt? 

Measuring out our plot and positioning our flags! 

We found this little guy in a tree crease! We think he's a
type of firefly! Here's a link to some information!