Nature's Neighborhoods Days 4 & 5

It is hard to believe that our 5 days of camp have already ended. I think we had the best weather week I've had at a summer camp in a looooooong time, so it allowed us to do some really good stuff.

Highlights of day 4, our wetland/marsh day:

• a morning full of marsh exploration-we used dipnets to catch a bunch of marsh critters, which include tadpoles, sticklebacks(a type of fish), water striders, a giant water bug, water boatmen, backswimmers, a caddisfly larva, midge larva and water mites. Many of these critters eventually turn into flying aquatic insects, but spend the majority of their lives in the water in larval or nymph stages.



• We got a chance to journey as a water droplet through the various places water exists on earth in a game called 'The Incredible Journey'



• We did a watercolor painting of a habitat to camouflage an animal in.



• We discussed all the good things marshes do for the earth and all its inhabitants during marsh metaphors and then took a stroll on the boardwalk through the heart of the cattail marsh here, while learning about cattails and a bully plant competing with it, called phragmites



• A short discussion of water tension and some of the properties of water. The campers then jumped into designing their own water strider, which actually walks on water.

Day 5 was our grassland day/camper's choice. In the morning we finished up a few craft projects, then headed out to our mounds/grassland area and caught a variety of different grassland inhabitants including spiders, beetles, bees, grasshoppers, a ladybug, a praying mantis, leafhoppers and host of other unusual insects that Miss Lauren and I just didn't know the names for. For campers choise, we played another round of the very popular fish migration game, and spent most of the afternoon fishing. We ended up catching 7 fish, which were a combination of bluegill and pumpkinseeds. We then took our last short hike together to the top of the mounds and got a nice group photo together with beautiful Lake Erie as a backdrop. Look for another post early next week with a slideshow of Nature's Neighborhoods photos!

We are so lucky to have this wonderful natural ecology of the lake and so many cool habitats at Tifft. I hope you all get a chance to come visit again and just get out and enjoy the beautiful outdoor summer sights and sounds around your neighborhoods. It will be gone before we know it, so have a great rest of the summer!

Miss Caryn