Works for me!
After lunch it was back on the dusty trail for us. It seems like every time we had an activity it was in the complete opposite direction from which we came. This time we had to hike from the dining hall to near the horse stables where we were earlier. We stopped briefly for the counselor to begin Instructional Period #6 for our group, which was Nature's Niche. It was about...well, certain animals niche in nature.
After the introduction we,.....yes. Hiked some more. Up the trail to a location where the counselor set up a small telescope. The kids started looking through the scope. What were they looking at? Were we going to learn about voyeurism? I guess so, sort of!
Oh!!! That's what it was all about. An eagle's nest. It turns out that there is a nesting pair of American Bald Eagle's near the camp property. The nest is in the top of a pine tree about 200 hundred yards from the location of the telescope. The nest is approximately 7 feet wide and is said to weigh close to one ton.
After Nature's Niche, yes....more hiking. This time to the lake for canoeing and Instructional Period #7.
After the safety speech and canoeing technique lecture it was time to saddle up.
No, wait! We saddled up earlier.
It was time to paddle up.
No, that should be load up and paddle; the canoes, not the kids.
At one point while on the lake a canoe tipped over. I'm still not quite sure how it tipped over other than the kids involved probably wanted it to tip over. It was warm and the kids were wanting to get wet and go swimming. While the counselor and Ms. Steele were on their way to "rescue" the "unlucky" pair, another crew took the dunk. While the "rescue" was mounted, I worked on getting the others ashore. When one of the girls canoe came in I noticed that it had a lot of water in the bottom. The girl said their canoe got stuck under the water spout during the excitement and started to fill. It just so happens I had caught a shot of this at the time. I enlarged it and put it above.
Now the explanation for the water spout. It turns out that the lake is man-made, as all lakes in Texas are with the exception of one (Caddo Lake is the only natural lake in Texas). The camp dug the lake last year and it filled in one week during the rainy season; then it started to gradually recede. It was then decided to drill down to the aquifer to provide water for the lake. the water spout is the water from the aquifer that fills the lake and the canoe in this case.
Instructional Period #8 and it is time for Aquatics. Not the Olympics sort. This is more of the life that you find in and near the waters edge. This gave our already soaked campers another opportunity to slosh in the mud. After the lesson we were armed with nets and attacked the water. Look out lake life. Here we come.
After our foray into the mick and mire our haul consisted of 3 frogs, 3-4 spiders, 6 fish(the baby variety), some mayfly nymphs, and it seems like a couple of other creatures that have since slipped my mind. After the collection procedure we sat and created a graph of our results; which is good for visualizing your information as well as preparing for the TAKS Science test.
After Aquatics today, Forest tomorrow.
PS-After completing this post I ran spell check. Spell check says that "canoeing" is not a word.
What in the world am I supposed to write?
Paddling a canoe??
Should I have written, "After Nature's Niche, yes....more hiking. This time to the lake for paddling a canoe and Instructional Period #7.' or "After the safety speech and paddling a canoe technique lecture it was time to saddle up."?
Somehow it just doesn't sound quite right.
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