The Worm Turns - April 18th, 2012 - Copeland Forest

The goal today was to gather edible plant life and to study pond life. There was a slight problem with the goal in that the weather has been extremely dry. For a definition and discussion of drought in Canada click here: http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/articles/drought

Since the weather has been dry, things are finding it extremely difficult to grow this spring and that includes the edible plants. Pond life is trucking along normally enough but anything that needs rainfall or snow melt in order to thrive is not doing to well. 

Amanda is a very resourceful person. Since she knew that the lack of rain pretty much meant a lack of plant life, she taught us how to make an earthworm farm. Worms like moist soil and they like darkness since they are nocturnal. To find the worms we had to look under the trees where the earth still had some wetness to it left over from the melting snow. 


A quick google on the www shows that there is much information about worms. Some starting links are here:

 http://kids.nationalgeographic.com/kids/animals/creaturefeature/earthworms/

 http://urbanext.illinois.edu/worms/

http://www.biologyjunction.com/earthworm%20facts.htm 

 http://www.naturewatch.ca/english/wormwatch/

The last link has links also to Plantwatch, Icewatch and Frogwatch.

All in all, earthworms get a lot of press and so they should. They are more than just bait. They're integral to the decomposition of matter and the health of the plant life around us.

After lunch we put the worms to rest and went to examine the pond. Unlike the land based life, which relies on rain and snow melt, the pond life is trucking along more or less as it should.

We noted quite a bit of beaver activity along the stream. Beaver seem to be quite artistic and also very persistent. They're also patient. A beaver can fell a tree with a circumference of 35cm or so, presumably to get at the branches on the top, although, as you can see from the treescaping below, they also know how to chop up the trunk.

For beaver info:
http://www.couplesresort.ca/Attractions/Articles/Animals/beaver.htm

For a cool song about beaver:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sWX8uWf2LhQ

Hey, they may be a nuisance, but we kind of like beaver.

Right, so there were beaver around somewhere, likely sleeping since beaver are  nocturnal - something they hold in common with earthworms.

There was also evidence of the activity of the Husquavarna Beaver.


In the stream, which the kids helped us ford by way of a makeshift bridge, they discovered frogspawn. Amanda told us that it takes 28 days for tadpoles to hatch. The strength of life and the abundance of it is quite amazing. Nature does things in excess, especially births because the survival rate for life is not as high as one might think. Look up sea turtles for instance.

In fact, some of the eggs we found were in danger of dying because the water level was so low. This afforded a great look at the egg sack but did not bode well for the tadpoles. We tucked them back in to the stream before continuing.

In the pond one of the kids caught a newt or possibly a salamander. Deciding what it is will take a bit of research. Either way, it counts as pretty nifty.

Here we have the link to newt info: http://www.ontarionature.org/protect/species/reptiles_and_amphibians/eastern_newt.php
This to salamanders: http://www.torontozoo.com/adoptapond/AboutAmphibians.asp?am=6

While we were at the pond the kids renovated the Fairy Hotel. The included a salad bar, a front foyer and some upper level housing. They also decided that the numerous sapsucker holes in the tree could count as rooms. The Fairy Hotel has more going it for it than even the Ritz.

Also, Amanda identified a new twig for us. This is Basswood and the buds are edible. You can tell Basswood from Black Ash because the buds on the Basswood alternate whereas those of the ash are opposite one another. basswood is the tree that leafs out with the enormous green leaves and is largely a ground hugger.

All in all, it was a great day to be out and discovering stuff up to an including small green striped garter snakes, so new n'all.

As the afternoon warmed up and the sun hit the pond we saw it come to life. The water boatmen below were not in evidence when we arrived and were there in abundance when we left. The spring is dry but it's determined to get there.