A day with Anne Runyon

I've been hanging out with Anne Runyon the past few days, resting up before the conference. We were planning to go to Gorges State Park, but instead stayed around Raleigh for the day. Anne showed me some wonderful stories about box turtles in Wildlife in North Carolina magazine. Then, as if that weren't enough, she even made one of her beautiful paper sculptures. I think it looks just like me.

My visit to Granville County ....

Weary from so many travels, Tryon rests up at a small farm in northern Granville County before heading to Raleigh on Oct.  12 and is surprised to find a gorgeous baby diamondback terrapin getting ready to go to the NAAEE Conference, too!!  It was no accident to hear him exclaim, “what a fine Carolina Critter!” 

You can meet the terrapin and his friends the bumble bee, red-cockaded woodpecker, narrow-mouthed toad and many more when you visit the “Welcome to North Carolina” exhibit at the Raleigh Convention Center, Oct 12-14. What is really cool is that you can take the Carolina Critters home with you permanently and share them with friends and students. Once they settle into their new surroundings, they required very little care and thrive on marvel and will delight for many moons to come. Adoption fees are very affordable and go toward a great cause: Environmental Education!! Don’t miss meeting all of Tryon’s newest friends, Carolina Critters & Crafts.

My Busy Day at Brunson Elementary School in Winston-Salem, North Carolina

Wow!

What a busy day!  Elementary students in Winston-Salem sure learn many things. The class I visited has been studying animals, but not animals like me.  They've been studying invertebrates.  Boy were they excited to see a critter as complex and spine-toting as me! 

During the day I checked out some cookie crumbs set out to lure ants. The students were trying to determine what types of ants live on their school grounds as part of NC State University’s School of Ants global ant mapping project. The students found that more ants were attracted to the cookies on a grassy surface than on a paved surface.  Although the students found many kinds of ants, they will have to wait for the School of Ants analysis to see what species they caught. Those arthropods sure liked the cookies! Too bad the ants that were attracted to the cookies had to be sacrificed in the freezer before being mailed to NCSU.

We all know that students can't learn without a dedicated teacher. These kids have it made. Lara Overby is their teacher. She is also on the board of the Environmental Educators of North Carolina (EENC). It's pretty neat that these students are still in elementary school but are already contributing to an important science project at NCSU. This is a picture of Lara, with her statement about what she likes best about EENC.

After the tiring time outside with the ants, we came back into the classroom to read Bridge to Terabithia, their class novel. Everyone wanted me to read with them. 

You’d think they didn’t know that the Eastern box turtle was their state reptile. In fact, two of the students introduced me to a picture of my cousin Charlotte, another Eastern box turtle, in a field guide book.

The end of the day was the most exciting part. We had recess! I got to play zombie tag and go down the slide. We also played a new game called Turtle, Turtle, Tryon that was similar to Duck, Duck, Goose. I felt very honored that the students created a special game just for me.

Then I met the principal who was covering for the crossing guard. He tried to look mean and scare me, but the students assured me that he was very helpful and kind. I thoroughly enjoyed being the Brunson Box Turtle.

I better get moving. I can't believe that the conference is starting next week. It hardly seems like any time has passed since I started my adventure in Raleigh at Artsplosure. 

My visit to the NC Center for the Advancement of Teaching

Tryon Turtle here. I wanted to drop you a few lines about my wonderful adventure with NCCAT. NCCAT as I found out is the North Carolina Center for the Advancement of Teaching and provides week long seminars for public school teachers to re-energize their love of learning. The seminar I visited took place in the NC mountains and was all about citizen science in the classroom. We visited Fairview Elementary where we tagged Monarch butterflies and hunted for ladybugs at their amazing outdoor classroom area. We ended our first day by looking at the ant diversity on NCCAT's campus using the School of Ants project.



The second day we traveled to Purchase Knob at the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Purchase knob is a research station where we monitored the phenology of local tree species, examined the terrestrial invertebrate diversity, and searched for salamander species in what is considered to be the salamander capital of the world. Seeing all of the insects and salamanders sure did make me hungry. We ended our day with an introduction to bird banding with local bird bander Mark Hopey.




The next day we traveled to the bird banding station at Big Bald along the Appalachian Trail on the Tennessee border. We banded a variety of migratory birds, counted migrating raptors and finished our day by catching and banding a migrating Merlin. What an amazing day. I sure have learned a lot about citizen science, met some of North Carolina's fantastic teachers, and had a great time during my NCCAT seminar.

You can find more photos at flickr

Tryon Goes to Middle School

Earlier this week, I visited a young group environmentalist at Archdale-Trinity Middle School.  These students stay after school to recyle, making sure their school environmental friendly for turtles as well as humans and every critter in-between.  I learned a lot about the large amount of plastic bottles and paper that are thrown away each day at a school.  Each week, the ATMS Environmental Club recycles the bottles for points through the Dream Machine Recycle Rally.  The Dream Machine Recycling Rally is supported by Pepsi Company, Waste Management, and Greenopolis to encourage schools to reduce their waste. Schools get to redeem points for rewards.

Of course, we all know that these students wouldn't be doing this without the help of a wonderful, energetic, inspiring teacher. Their teacher is Sarah Fuller-Allman, the EENC membership co-chair. As if volunteering and teaching aren't enough, Sarah owns a farm and raises and shows Brahman cattle. I didn't meet her cattle. I guess that's good because I might have been stepped on. Ouch! Here is a picture of one of her Brahman calves starting to stand after being born. 

These kids are not only helping their school to be “green friendly,” but they are also helping the community by testing their water.  They had some time to take me water quality testing in Archdale at a local stream.  This stream is off the parking lot from the school, so the kids study how the school affects its local environment.  I learned a lot with the kids about the runoff from the parking lot and how it is causing sediment to build up in the stream.  They share their data with local scientists to help improve the water quality.

It was definitely a tiring day, following these energetic environmentalists around, but it is good to see my children’s future will be protected as along as these kids keep studying and lobbying for us!

My First Marathon

On September 17th, Davidson Lands Conservancy sponsors a "Race for the Green" marathon.  This year, I hitched a ride on the back of one of the runners and actually finished in pretty good time, and not at all winded!  The course winds in and around the town of Davidson and ends up on the Town Green.  On the Green, and for the rest of the morning, I enjoyed live entertainment, displays from vendors of "green" products and activities with the kids. I was able to share information about the conference with many people, and at by lunchtime, I was exhausted! Thankfully, EENC member Carolyn Walker took me home to rest before my next adventure.

I helped Dr. Grant at the Davidson Lands Conservancy booth.



These cute girls took me around  after they got their faces painted. I passed on that because I am not a painted turtle.

I finished my first marathon. I don't know why everyone thinks it's so hard. I thought it was pretty easy.












     

September 10: Summer Camp at Piedmont Environmental Center Turtles Just Want to Have Fun

Nature Camp and Herpetology Camp at PEC

Imagine an old guy like me going to summer camp, but that’s just what I did. I had the chance to go to High Point and attend one week of Piedmont Environmental Center’s Summer Nature Adventure Camp and two days of Herpetology Camp. The 5-day Summer Nature Camp was a great experience. One of the naturalists, Tom Shepherd, has been supervising camps for more than 25 years.  The other Naturalist was once a camper at this very camp. She went to Appalachian State University and came back to work here. Some of the campers have been to this camp before and some were newcomers like me. The schedule covered just about every topic of natural history.

Each day, camp began with an introduction to the map of the day. The trail selected for our first hike was the Woodland Wildflower Trail. The Naturalists explained the 8 “tools” packs that go with us on every hike. Of course, the most sought after pack is “Herp tools” pack. It contains the most essential tools for working with wild reptiles and amphibians: calipers, scales, record books and pencils, two pillow cases, and three herp-jugs.  I learned that you can buy herp-jugs in the grocery store. They come with free peanut butter and parmesan cheese in them! The parmesan cheese kind are the best, they have the build- in flip-top air holes. I got to be put in the herp pack and a camper named Maria carried me.

With snacks in our packs, and our packs on our backs, we set off on the first of 12 trails we would follow through-out the week. Our first herp was a Fowlers Toad. A camper spotted it just off the trail next to an old log. Hard to believe I am considered within the same broad biological science as this odd fellow.  Over the course of the next five days the campers and I had spotted and documented fourteen species of herps including: twenty-one Yellowbelly Sliders, three Painted Turtles, one Eastern Musk Turtle. Unfortunately, no Eastern Box Turtles we found during my week at camp.  Campers also kept track of the birds, arthropods, fish and mammals observed during the week.

On Thursday, the campers have the option to spend the night. During the final activity of the evening, the naturalists shared stories and folklore about Eastern Box Turtles. One story explained how I got the markings on my carapace; they are the footprints of a little muskrat that brought the land-land up from deep down in the water-land to give the woman from sky-land a place to stand. You have to hear the story! I learned that my carapace is also a calendar. Each one of my vertebral and costal scutes represents a full moon cycle. The riddle is: 13 scutes but only 12 months, how can you account for the extra scute?

Herp Camp at PEC is two days of studying lizards, frogs, toads, salamanders, snakes and of course, as my pack friend from last week would say, las tortugas. We got really lucky for Herp Camp; it had rained over the weekend. The forest was moist and refreshed when we started out on our first trail. The first herps we saw were tiny American toads. Then, several campers called out with great enthusiasm, “Turtle!” A hatchling Eastern Box Turtle was walking across the trail. We took lots of pictures. This is the fourth year out of the last five that a hatchling has been found during the summer camping season. These documented sightings are evidence that there may very well be a reproducing population of Eastern Box Turtles at PEC.

Over the course of the next two days the herp campers and I observed and identified 21 species of herps, three short of the record that was set 14 years ago. So close! We found one more Eastern Box Turtle. She was captured and marked two years ago at nearly the same spot on the trails. By looking at her marks on her marginal scutes, the naturalists determined that she is turtle #33. The record shows she was recaptured last fall during one of the school fieldtrip classes at PEC. The campers and I helped update her weight and carapace measurements for the record book.

I left PEC camps like every other camper has left; absolutely worn out! I am told it is a tradition.