Category: Workshop Adventures

We didn’t find any skulls, so we didn’t get to practice one of our newest skills, namely creating a dental formula that could take us a long way in identifying a mammal species. But we did get to examine poop, and, yes, it was fun!

Dr. Kim Tolson identified this scat as coyote (Canis latrans) because it was full of hair. Of course. Coyotes eat small mammals.

Indeed, we could tell that the hair was “agouti” hair, which we had just learned in class means that the hair featured horizontal bands of color. Rabbits and some rodents have agouti hair and both are common meals for coyotes. We followed this coyote straight down the trail on top of a levee, seeing a nice big print in the soft, damp soil every few yards.

Getting to observe something in the field right after learning it in the classroom is gratifying and fun. The new “sticks” so much better!

We also learned to make a “taxonomic key” to help with identifying species. A key is a series of pairs of questions called “couplets,” with each pair featuring one characteristic of a species. The questions must have mutually exclusive answers, like present/absent or yes/no.

For example, if we had before us several rats, we could begin with a couplet like 1a. Does it have agouti hair? and 1b. Does it have solid color hair? And with that one question you could sort your rats into two groups and then go on to the next couplet, and on to the next. For rats, we learned, we might need 6 or 7 couplets to match one rat with a specific species.

Maybe you must have a fondness for mind-bending puzzles to say doing such a thing was fun. But I thought it was. I’ve become a bit obsessed with knowing the species of things!

Of course, although our focus for a mammals workshop was mammal sign, a bunch of naturalists does not wonder through Russell Sage Wildlife Management Area without noticing many other things. So at one point the trees nearby filled with cedar waxwings. At another we were down on our knees examinging small fungi on a log. And at another point, I fell way behind photographing a damselfly, which iNaturalist says is a Southern Spreadwing (Lestes australis). Cool! I don’t see very many spreadwings.

Our first certification workshop of Spring 2023 was a great success. About a dozen people came together in the Environmental Learning Center out at Black Bayou Lake NWR for a fun and educational experience.

We spent the first hour and a half on nature journaling, with Kim Paxton standing in for Amy Ouchley. We missed Amy, but Kim did a great job.

After Kim’s presentation, everyone went outside to make some observations and try sketching and writing about those observations.

Bette Kauffman focused on making observations to be shared with the research community via online platforms like eBird and iNaturalist. Numerous examples show how these databases contribute to scientific understanding of such things as climate change and declining bird populations worldwide. It is thus important that citizen scientists, like Master Naturalists, are thorough and accurate in making and submitting observations. We have a direct impact on the quality of those databases.

We ended the day with instruction on some principles of interpreting nature to various audiences and a quick review of projects the Master Naturalists of our chapter have done to complete their training and become certified.

Coming next: Mammals with Dr. Kim Tolson, March 18, 9-3. Look for a blog post soon. Check the “Events” list in the right hand sidebar of this page for the entire series.

That’s what we did! And learned a lot as well.

It was a very hands-on workshop. Our classroom was Marty Earnest’s farm in Caldwell Parish. Marty has a long history of experimenting with conservation farming methods that have enriched his soil and reduced the cost of farming, for example by reducing the number of tractor passes on his fields.

Rachel Stout-Evans, soil scientist with the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service, laid out the basic principles of conservation farming that will improve soil health:

• minimize disturbance
• keep roots in the soil year-round
• rotate crops
• maximize plant diversity
• incorporate livestock (the newest addition to the list)

Most people know that soil erosion is a problem. Using simple field set-ups–like water in a tall cylinder–Rachel demonstrated the difference following these principles can make. The secret is protecting and feeding soil microbes that enable soil to absorb water rather than be washed downstream by every rainfall.

We dug our own soil plugs, and examined and rated them on a chart of soil qualities. Then La Tech forestry professor Bill Patterson taught us how to identify soil type from texture by making mud in our hands. I haven’t had so much fun since making mud pies as a child growing up on an Iowa farm!

We conducted a simple infiltration test in a field by pounding an aluminum ring a few inches into the soil, pouring in a measured amount of water, and timing how long it took to disappear into the ground. Marty Earnest’s soil performed pretty well.

It was, all in all, a most interesting morning, and we came away with knowledge and simple tests we can conduct to improve soil health in our own gardens and yards.

–simple things–you can do to help birds:

• Drink shade-grown coffee
• Citizen science (e.g., eBird, iNaturalist)
• Reduce plastic use (good for the entire planet)
• Make windows safer
• Keep cats indoors
• Plant natives
• Avoid pesticides

And it is vitally important to do these things because we have lost almost 3 billion birds, just since 1970. For more information about these measures and about why we should care about birds, visit the 3 billion birds website.

This and much more we learned last Saturday from Terri Maness, instructor for LMN-NE’s birds certification workshop. BTW, did you know that although a few particular points about the evolution of birds are still debated, most experts agree that birds are dinosaurs. Well, direct descendants. Think flying reptiles.

The rain quit by noon Saturday, so we piled on layers against the dropping temp and blustery winds and went out looking for birds at Black Bayou Lake NWR. We quickly learned that in open areas, the birds were hunkered down. Those with better hearing than I could hear them but we didn’t get many glimpses of them.

However, twice we went into wooded areas, where trees broke the back of the wind, and immediately began seeing the little birds. What a delight to be surrounded by ruby-crowned and golden-crowned kinglets! We heard song sparrows and saw white-throated and swamp sparrows.

Out on the open water of the lake we saw a few ducks but mostly lots of pied-billed grebes–which we learned from Terri’s lecture are not ducks, but a different family of the Avian line. (I feel so smart knowing that now!)

And then there was the red-tailed hawk, perched on a tree overlooking the prairie out in front of the visitor center at BBLNWR. See it in my photo? No, you don’t. Because I never spotted it. I thought sure I was looking in the right place and I clicked away, but… in vain. Others saw it. I know because they have posted photos in our Facebook group. So go there, please, to see the red-tailed hawk.

One day I’m going to publish a collection of my photos of clumps of leaves, sticks, shadows, etc.–all kinds of things that were supposed to be birds and weren’t! So goes bird photography.

See the Events list in the right hand column of this website to see what’s upcoming and I’ll blog about it as quickly as I can get to it.

And maybe a bunch of naturalists? We were certainly enthralled!

That’s the hand of Nelle Jenkins, one of Dr. Kim Tolson’s biology graduate students, who is doing her thesis research on turtles in Bayou Desiard. This awesome critter wandered into one of her live traps. Note that she is firmly grasping the carapace right behind the turtle’s head. Does anyone doubt that those jaws could snap off a carelessly placed finger in a heartbeat?

Today was our Herpetofauna of Louisiana workshop with Dr. John Carr. We were graciously hosted on the ULM campus by the Museum of Natural History and its director, Dr. Kim Tolson, who opened the Museum for us so we could explore before the workshop proper began and again on our lunch break. What a fantastic resource for our community!

So… after exploring the Museum, learning herp taxonomy, meeting this impressive snapper plus a bunch of other turtles on Bayou Desiard, and observing graduate students in action capturing, measuring, tagging and releasing turtles… we went out to Black Bayou Lake NWR for more field work.

To be honest, I lost track. But I’m certain that at least three cottonmouths were sighted, two broad-banded watersnakes, two broad-headed skinks and several little brown skinks, a southern leopard frog, probably a dozen cricket frogs and one green tree frog.

All in all, it was a most rewarding day. Thank you so much, Drs. Carr and Tolson and ULM Museum of Natural History.