This past week, I have spent three consecutive days outside wandering Centennial Woods. This time of year is prime amphibian-findin’ time, and my friends and I set out to look for some frogs and newts. I hadn’t visited Centennial Woods since the beginning of March, and seeing the landscape becoming green and colorful again was quite refreshing.
Our first day out there, we found almost up to ten frogs in a 20-foot radius!
Pictured above is a shy, little green frog I captured a snapshot of before he swam away in a cloud of sediment, further down Centennial Brook.
The next day, I ventured out on my own to see just what kinds of little critters live within Centennial Brook that you can’t quite see by just looking at the running water. Taking a clean glass bottle, I scooped up some sediment, vegetation, and of course some brook water to take back home with me to observe. I originally thought I would only observe a few snails, and a little water penny if I was lucky. But boy was I in for a surprise!!
Once the sediment settled, and the brook water became clear again, I saw HUNDREDS of microbes swimming about in the bottle! There were some that swam around with whip-like tails, there were some that looked like tiny little dots almost too close to loose sediments, and there were some that looked so thin and stringy that they almost looked like algae. I watched these little dudes swim about for hours, because I had no idea there would be so much life in one little scoop of brook water!
After this, I just had to make a trophic map of some the wildlife I had observed right in my very own dorm room, and also of some of the friends I had happened upon in Centennial Woods.
On the third day of my exploration of Centennial Woods, I decided to go in the rain this time to see what life comes out in the wet. To my surprise, I saw even less amphibians than I saw on the days it was hot and sunny. Perhaps it was too wet and dangerous for these friends to be out. This time, I decided to grab some bud clippings to keep in a jar on my desk. Within a day, the buds started to break and are now shooting out brand-new, green leaves! I will give updates in the days to come in the twigs’ progression.
