Another Fabulous Creek Day

Last time I posted about our creek days I had no pictures, so I thought I would post some from today's outing.  What a gorgeous day!

We saw this spider on the walk to the creek, and Madeline insisted I take it's picture.

The group spent a lot of time on this small "island" investigating the life on and around it and digging trenches in the mud.

This is one of several crayfish that were caught on this expedition.  One of the others actually had eggs on its belly, which was very cool!

Isabella dug up this treasure!

A snake was caught on the walk back to the car.  We had actually seen one on the walk in as well, with the same markings, but I rarely touch snakes myself since I can't identify them.  We were with others who were more knowledgable on the walk out, so the kids got a chance to hold this one.  It was identified as a Prairie Ring-necked snake, easily identifiable by the yellow ring around its neck.  It had quite a colorful belly as well.

Here is Hailey holding the snake.

The kids all wanted multiple turns holding it before releasing it back into the woods.

All in all, a great day!

Creek Days - Spring Edition

We are so fortunate to belong to such an active homeschool group filled with wonderful people!  One of the members arranged creeks days for the group back in the fall, and then again this spring.  We have had such a great time learning about all of the incredible things that live around the creeks and ponds in our area.  Today's trip was to a section of Bear Creek, and was by far one of the most exciting adventures yet.  Being spring, the area was just teeming with life.  I really wish that I had taken my camera, but I did not.

What did we see today?  Well...
water striders
different types of tadpoles in great quantity (bullfrogs, American toads)
several different types of frogs (in fact Hailey caught a spring peeper)
a large turtle floating in the water
a couple of smaller turtles
several species of fish
a garter snake attempting to eat a toad, and then giving up after quite a long time and spitting it out
beetles
a lizard
a water scorpion
midge fly larvae

To top it off, we had a PhD student form Mizzou join us who studies aquatic invertebrates.

What an incredible morning!