Tag Archives: outdoors

The Fox

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Authors Note: I wrote this blog entry as a challenge from Micky, a naturalist with the Heritage Foundation and a science educator. She brought the eMammal team to Prairie Ridge on Monday July 14 for a nature walk. She challenged us as we walked to think of a habitat for an animal and then gave us time to explore and evaluate a habitat space for the animal.

This week I was a fox, a red fox more specifically.

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I found a great looking River Birch tree about 150 meters from the nearby creek. The creek is essential to my habitat as it provides fresh water. Fresh water also means that other small animals will be close by that might make for a tasty meal.

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The River Birch tree is a favorite of mine. I like the beauty of this tree. Nearby is a Red Oak tree. Its acorns are also a source of food for me, but again, also for other small critters that live nearby. More opportunity for me to find a meaty snack.
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As I pondered my habitat, a shadow from a flying creature passed over the ground. I could tell by its shadow that it was a hawk, confirmed it as a red-tail by sighting it as it flew by. Red-tails give me the shivers. I’m just big enough now where they usually don’t bother me, but I had a scary experience as a pup. I was out hunting with ma, when this horrifying screech froze me in my tracks. It was a Red-tail intent on grabbing me for its lunch. Fortunately I was just able to avoid its talons and ducked into a hollowed tree log.
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Surrounding these trees was a lot of low lying brush, tall grasses mixed in with Japanese stilt grass. I envision these grasses are home to many rodents species, especially cotton rats and white-footed mice.

Yes, this is a good habitat. Shelter from danger, access to water and food, and opportunity. This will do.

Red-fox-side-profile

Dragonflies and Dinosaur Bones

Last week might have been the official kickoff for the 2014-15 Kenan Fellows cohort, but I think today is the day that most of us in the Students Discover cohort have been looking forward to.  Today we made it to our workplace for the next three weeks… the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences.

NC Museum of Natural Sciences
The Nature Research Center at the Museum

Check out this awesome badge they gave me…

They call me, David Glenn, Teacher-Scientist
They call me, David Glenn, Teacher -Scientist

I’m not gonna lie, I have bragged that one of the highest-highlights of this experience that I’m looking forward to is working in a lab at the museum.

There were some great highlights from the day:

1. We started our day out at Prairie Ridge, an outdoor, hands-on classroom environment, open to the public. We got the chance to do some hands-on science catching some dragonflies and counting them for the scientists monitoring their populations.

Look I caught me a blue Pond Hawk.
Look I caught me a blue Pond Hawk.

2. Had some quality time with my eMammal Teamlet, Stephanie, Kelsie and Dayson. Excited to be working with these fine scientist/educators this summer. Also, got to see the lab I’ll be working in and meet our project director Dr. Roland Kays.

Teamlet eMammal
Teamlet eMammal

3. After hearing an inspiring kickoff keynote from Dr. Rob Dunn, the principal investigator on our Students Discover grant, we were led down to the basement of the museum for a behind-the-scenes look at how and where the museum’s collection is stored.

Overall, another great day in this program. I’m looking forward to working with Dayson and Kelsie and Stephanie to make this science available to teachers and students in my classroom and teachers and students around the world. It’s going to be a challenge, but a great one.

I wrap up with one last question from an experience recently that plays right into the heart of my cohort’s focus: Why did the peacock cross the road?

(from glogster media library)

I don’t have a great answer, but one peacock scared the bejesus out of my wife while she was driving us to Raleigh this weekend. (I was just as shocked, I just wasn’t driving at the time) It had gotten all the way out to the right lane of Highway 64 and she had to swerve to avoid hitting it. Just goes to show that we interact with the animals around us whether we intend to or not. As scientists, I think we owe it to our selves and society to understand those complex relationships and understandings between animals and humans and the surrounding environment.