Finally Fairy Shrimp

We did go back to Rancocas, the very next night in fact, to again look and listen for Woodcock. And we were again successful, with four birds joining us that evening.

But again no pictures. Bummer.

But as a consolation prize we did see these.

Eastern Fairy Shrimp. A wonderful consolation prize.

Many years ago, over ten at least, Mary Belko, the then director of the RNC, and I signed up for a citizen science project to monitor vernal pools. And that is when I first learned of Fairy Shrimp. But I had never had the good fortune to find any.

And now I have. There are at least four in the image above.

Very cool.

🦐  🦐  🦐  🦐  🦐

Mary and I planned to monitor the vernal pools at the Nature Center, as well as a WMA near her house. Alas, the folks running the project wanted the participants to monitor sites that were not on public land. And the Rancocas Nature Center is on the grounds of the Rancocas State Park. So we did not actively participate in the project. Sadly, the project ended long ago.

And had we monitored the vernal pools at the RNC, I might have seen Fairy Shrimp way back then.

I did get this cool frog picture though.