Lichen and Likable Creatures

Save the date!  Registration link coming soon...

 

Thankful

 I am so thankful...

Thankful for the urban child who saw her first live swan during our summer program at Blackstone Park.

Thankful for the kids at Wolf School who got out of their comfort zone looking under logs and finding salamanders and spiders.

Thankful for the kids who helped clean the park, who vowed to leave leaf litter for the hibernating insects and amphibians, who want to be frog and feeder watchers.

Thankful for the financial support of our donors and organizations and families who book programs.

Thankful for every bird we see, every leaf we examine, every heart we fill with a love for nature.

Environmental advocacy starts with these early experiences.

Thank you.

Winter Birds

 

https://www.blackstoneparksconservancy.org/events/winter-birds-2/

Leaf Detectives

 

Mysterious Mushrooms!

Ever wonder about mushrooms?  Learn how some are vital to decomposing, some are parasites, and some work with tree roots, helping them communicate and get more nutrition. 

In Person:  October 10th, 10 - 11:30 a.m. at Blackstone Park Conservancy.  Meet at the Blackstone Park kiosk, by Parkside Road & East Orchard Avenue, Providence, RI 02906. Mushroom collecting is not allowed, but stay on the trails to see what you find!  We’ll have laminated guides to borrow and Melissa on hand to identify photos sent by text.  Kids can make clay mushrooms to take home.  Masks, social distancing, and Registration required.

Virtual: October 21st, 6:30 p.m.

Register in advance for this meeting here.

Both are FREE, but donations always appreciated.  Use the Donate button on our home page!   More programs in the link (top right).

Learn More About Us!

Want to learn more about 15 Minute Field Trips?  We have a Q&A session TONIGHT at 7 p.m. EST.

Register in advance for this meeting:

https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZUof-6sqzwjGNDDuNPleVGQsFWwy7NKDzZC 

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.

The Steampunk Seed Traveling Side Show

 

Register here.

The Insect Orchestra Family Day

 "Join the Insect Orchestra!" August 15th 10-11:30 at Blackstone Field.  Registration and masks required.  Limited to 12 participants!

Buzz, whir, click, chirp! It's summer, and the trees, fields, and warm nights are full of sounds! They sound like machinery, but they're actually insects!  Learn how insects make sounds, then make your own instruments with your family using our kit.  Watch the Insect Orchestra here: https://youtu.be/1lTRC86Q7QI or see it on tour at the Rhode Island Museum of Art and Science (rimosa.org) in August and the RI Natural History Survey (rinhs.org) in September.  Part of the "Art and Science at the Park" series with 15 Minute Field Trips.

The Insect Orchestra

This event is on the move!  If you missed it at ASRI, Bristol, you can now view it at the Rhode Island Museum of Science and Art in Providence through August.  

Registration required:  http://www.rimosa.org/

Next we'll have a small, registered event at Blackstone Parks Conservancy on August 18th.  I will add the registration link soon.

In September you can find us at the Rhode Island Natural History Survey building in Kingston.  Stay tuned and stay safe!!

Summer Programs at Blackstone Park

Full details here: https://15minutefieldtrips.blogspot.com/p/blackstone-parks-programs.html

Be the Change

I can’t be at rallies or protests for a number of reasons. I’ve had pneumonia this time of year and have an auto-immune disorder. If I get arrested, I can say good-bye to my teaching career. I have a child that needs me. But I still want to do what I can to advocate for and protect those I love. This is just one action I am am taking in response to these times:

I teach about the environment through art. I teach about the importance, the necessity, of biodiversity. Children thrill at the diversity of colors and shapes and textures in leaves, in seeds. I teach about pollination, not just about the introduced domesticated honey bees, but the solitary bees, the butterflies and moths, the beetles, flies, ants, birds, and even bats that pollinate. Without insect pollinators, humanity would be wiped out. We don’t get to decide which insects get to pollinate our tomatoes, which more often will be a bumblebee, nor should we. Using pesticides and enforcing monocultures is toxic. Words of hate and racism and suppression of other races and cultures is toxic.

Today I continue work bringing nature to children. I am mostly engaged online, but I prepare for the time we can be together again. I struggled with putting nature under a plastic shield, wanting kids to touch actual leaves and galls knowing some would be crushed. Now I seal some of my favorite pressed leaves under lamination so each child I teach can look at their diversity before collecting their own leaves around where we are. I will wipe all the sheets down with Lysol. I’m placing robin egg shells, cicada exoskeletons, dragonfly exuvia, and oak apple galls inside clear plastic cases to pass around and wipe between each student, as they learn how nature solves problems.

We need to change our nature as a society. Be the change you want to see.

We need to change our nature as a society.  Be the change you want to see.

Compost Cafe Countdown

Just five days left until our Compost Cafe launch with deep underground jazz worm Blind Lemon Nightcrawler!  Join us as we plan the menu, create our brand, listen to jazz, watch silly worm antics, and experiment with bananas!  It's one hour of dirt-packed fun!  Only $6 per household for our virtual event on Zoom.  Sign up here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/compost-cafe-with-blind-lemon-nightcrawler-tickets-104312357068?fbclid=IwAR2ZyCzXMCyrpKGWs8UsnGKCT8R_IfJvhB_DC4tKVd9x6Zpyky3u9HG2U7U

Insect Orchestra Part 1

Here's the first of nine pairings I will share this month. Stay tuned for exhibit info. Have a listen here: http://songsofinsects.com/katydids/american-shieldback You can order prints here: https://www.redbubble.com/i/art-board-print/Watermelon-with-wind-up-toy-by-Eco-Artopia/48081030.7Q6GI

Check out our new workshops!

What Can Babies Tell Us?

How can babies tell us about their environment?  Recently, I visited three locations and collected macroinvertebrates (small and mostly immature insects still visible to the naked eye) from the ponds at Borders Farm in Foster, Buck Hill Wildlife Management Area in Pascoag, and Trustom Pond in Matunuck.  Different species have different pollution tolerances, so certain species would indicate how clean the water was.

Abstract art or animals?  Maybe water pennies?  Very tiny.

I first collected at Borders Farm, which has a small retainer pond with cattails, grasses, lily pads, algae, and lots of frogs.  I was there to run an insect workshop and in the past another collector found a number of insects as well as leeches.  I went into the shallow water with my rain boots and clean white plastic tubs, swishing my net back and forth through the fairly clear water.  It was teeming with water boatmen and I dumped every scoop into one of the tubs I had added pond water to.  I picked out the plants, swirling them one more time in the water and examining them before returning them to the pond.  I added clear pond water to the other tub and brought them both over to the table.    Then I waited for the sediment to settle.

Photographing these creatures posed its own challenges.    It was a sunny day and we were set up in the shade.  The sun was in my eyes most of the time, plus I was running a workshop.  But I did get a few shots of some of the creatures.  

Very pollution-tolerant are aquatic worms, blood worm midge larva, left-handed snails, and red-tailed maggots.  I'm sure I didn't find every species in that pond, but I saw all but the maggot larva.    

This snail looks like it's holding a balloon!

I didn't know to check which side the hole is on.  I think this is a left-handed
snail, which breathes air.  (Right -handed snails have gills.)

Backswimmer from the pond.  Shadow of my camera lens?  Fairly tolerant species.

Even another species?

Mysterious newcomer!  I later identified it as a phantom midge.

Next in tolerance are the midge larva, like the phantom midge above, planar (flatworms), black fly larva, and leeches.  Moderately intolerant to pollution are the damselfly nymphs, dragonfly nymphs, sowbug, crankily larvae, clams, and scuds or amphipods.  We found two dragonfly larva and a few scuds.  At the least tolerant tier are the stonefly and mayfly nymphs, riffle beetles (adult and nymph), caddisfly and dobsonfly larva, water penny larva, and the right-handed snail.  Below, see the mayfly nymph!

Mayfly nymph.

This was so exciting and I wanted to do it again with more time to improve the photography.  At Buck Hill, I repeated my collecting with my cleaned, bleached, and rinsed bins to have another look.  I moved the bins to a sunnier spot, still struggling against glare and shadows cast by either me or the sides of the bins.  But I got a few better photos and a few people interested in what I was doing, including an older couple walking their dog and a man from the USFS!  ("No, I wasn't with DEM.  I was just taking pictures before I let them go.  Do you know...")

Another oarman.

Dragonfly larva!

I did the usual sweep through the plants and dump.  With the many oarsmen at Borders, I was looking for movement.  But then I saw something big drop out...  What WAS this?  I saw the long projection and guessed water scorpion, my guides left at home.  And it was!

A water scorpion!  Not actually a scorpion, but a predatory insect
found in slow-moving water.  This guy did not move fast, so I easily
moved him to the clearer tub for the photo.

On to Trustom Pond, a much larger body of water with frogs and painted turtles.  There were oarsmen again, and my first leech!  It was on a turtle we caught and  stubbornly clung first to the turtle's shell, then to the boardwalk, then the tub.  (The turtle snapped the stick with its beak and hissed at us, but after a few quick photos, we let it go.)   Doing more sweeps, I brought up a lot of muck.  As I swished through it, we found many aquatic sowbug (isopods).  There were also dragonfly and mayfly larva.  All three locations were quite clean!

Blood midge.  Very tolerant.

A clam! Moderately intolerant.

Aquatic sowbug.

Eat dead plant matter.

Can indicate a recovering ecosystem.

Got a cool shadow with this backswimmer.

Still dealing with bin shadow.

A whirligig beetle.  Moderate pollution tolerance.  Just briefly out of water.

The LEECH!!!!

Basic rule of thumb is the cleaner the water, the more biodiversity you will see.  The air-breathing species are more tolerant because they don't breathe the water.  Gilled creatures are thus more sensitive.  Seeing a pollution-tolerant species does not mean the water is polluted unless that's all you find.  Here's a good guide: https://scioly.org/wiki/index.php/Water_Quality/Macroorganism_List

But I know you're wondering about that turtle...

"Hiss! Boo! Put me down!!!"

"I still don't like this!"

One more pic!

Back at home!

 If you'd like to schedule a workshop in RI, MA, or CT, message me in the comments or at 15minutefieldtrips @ gmail.com.  (Spaced to stop robots from messaging me, lol!) I also  cover other insects, birds, fish, turtles, seeds, plants, and composting.  See you outside!