Mr. W's EnviroBlog

Well, time to dust off the keyboard after a long absence.  I spent the last 3 weeks working at a summer camp, Green River Preserve, in the NC mountains.  I served as a mentor (naturalist) to campers from ages 6-13.  I led morning hikes, and also taught fly-fishing.

One of the things I love the most about the job is catching critters with kids.  Many campers have a fear of “creepy crawlies” like bugs, worms, and snakes.  Is this natural fear that comes with evolving as an omnivore?  Is this an unnatural fear encouraged by nervous mothers?  Once they loose the fear, you should see them go!  Ever watch a kid trying to catch tadpoles?

I do know this, we only care for the things we love.  My hope is to pass on a love of even the lowliest of creatures.  As we sing at GRP, “the forest is a wonderful place, a place to find frogs and snakes.”  I want kids to grow up to see the forest as a wonderful place, one worth protecting for many reasons (utilitarian, aesthetic, moral, biodiversity) to include safe harbor for creepy crawlies.  Why?  As John Muir said so eloquently, “When one tugs at a single thing in nature, he finds it attached to the rest of the world.” Everything is interconnected…

Here are some of my favorite shots of kids making “friends:”

Banded Water Snake

Mayfly Nymph

Crayfish

Walking Stick Insect

Damselfly

The howler monkeys woke me up at 4:30 am this morning…

After breakfast, Brett and I hiked the La Selva property.  Most of the trails are paved with concrete, so most of this was safe and even walking.  We hiked most of the morning in old growth rainforest.  Reading about the density and diversity of tropical rainforest life in a textbook just does not come close to doing the real deal justice.

Although we spotted Great Green Macaws, Crested Guan, Blue Morpho butterfly, agouti, collared pecarry, collared anteater, Central America whiptail lizard and the Strawberry or Blue Jeans dart frog, I think my favorite sighting were the leaf-cutter ants.  We saw millions upon millions of these little guys at work.  Here is a picture of Brett pointing out a very obvious leaf-cutter ant trail winding through the grounds:

Ant trail at La Selva

Once we got into the rainforest, they were everywhere.  I can’t believe there are any trees left as fast as they seem to be working.  Here is a short video clip (10 sec) that I filmed of leaf-cutter ants at work: