Tuesday, May 21, 2019

Whitesbog Bioblitz - Pond Life

After we finished eating I joined Steve Luell of the Pinelands Institute for Natural and Environmental Studies to see what we could find in one of the ponds (Patty went on a bird walk).

Steve provided nets on long poles which we used to scoop up stuff. We  did our scooping amongst the vegetation along the edge of the pond, as that provides cover for the little things we were looking for. We emptied our nets into shallow pans we had filled with water. And looked to see what we had found.

We found lost of little things.


Like tiny tadpoles.


And larger, but still small, tadpoles. This one is likely a Bullfrog based on size.


Insects, such as this water bug.


And this Giant Water Beetle aka "Toe Biter". Watch out fish! (Even though fish don't have toes, this beetle will kill and eat fish of this size.)


There were several Damselfly Larva ...


... and Dragonfly Larva. Both are voracious predators as well.


And about those fish, there were three that we captured.


All Sunfish, too small to identify to species.

It was cool to see all this usually unseen stuff.

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