The first trip of the 2011/12 school year was a success!

48 students participated in the Land Lab hike on Saturday.
We spent the morning hiking the trails and enjoying the great outdoors.

Here’s the group hanging out on the steps of “Grotto”…

Just following the group photo, the gang found a cow skull in the ravine.  I am not sure how
it got there, but legend has it, there is a herd of wild cows that roam the Land Lab.  Nice find…

Many snakes were found that day.  Here’s Troy with a Dekay’s snake (brown snake)…

Paul and an eastern milk snake…

Tanner and an eastern milk snake…

Adam found an American toad…

Kim found a baby milk snake…

The first trip was a great success.  Many creatures were found and a good time was had by all!

Until the next adventure…

This past weekend we headed down to southern Ohio for our annual spring trip.

On our way down, we stopped mid way through at The Columbus Zoo.
Here we were able to get off the bus, stretch out a little, explore the zoo, and get some lunch.

A group shot at the zoo…

This past Saturday, we met at the Land Lab for our annual “Amphibian Hunt”.

In the past we have called it our “Spring Peeper Hunt”, but each time we were finding other
amphibians including the Spring Peeper.  So we have changed the name appropriately to the “Amphibian Hunt”.

An “Amphibian Hunt” involves the catching of an amphibian and photographing it.
We then let it go back to it’s natural habitat.  After we each catch one, we then focus on spotting as many
as possible (no need to actually catch it).  In the past, some members have encountered as many as 40+ amphibians
in one evening.  It really depends on a combination of things, usually the weather conditions and the biologist
doing the hunting.

This year’s “Amphibian Hunt” was a great success.  Let’s take a look…
Here’s the gang all geared up and ready to go!

Our first stop was at our “upper pond” at the Land Lab.  Just in the last 3 or 4 years we have really
established a nice population of Spring Peepers in this pond.

They are hard to catch here due to the depth of the pond and quick drop off at it’s edge.
You really have to be good to catch one here.  The challenge was set and the member’s responded…

Within minutes, Max caught the first Spring Peeper of the night…

A closer look at the Spring Peeper (Pseudacris crucifer crucifer)…

Some might say it was rigged, but I leave it all up to genetics… the boy has it in his DNA.
Once Max set the tone, everyone began to catch Spring Peepers.

John Kominko was the second to catch one…

This was a first for Vidja.  She now can check this off her list of things to do during her life time.

After rummaging through the pond, we traveled to the outer edges of the Land Lab to explore
the vernal pools…

When we arrived, the sound of peepers were so loud,  we could hardly here each other talk.
Once in the pools, it wasn’t long until members started catching peepers.

Graham gives the sign that he has located a peeper.  Let’s check it out…

There’s the little guy.  Nice job Graham!

Many of the peepers were hiding in the tall grass.  This made it a true “Amphibian Hunt”.

First you had to listen for the peeper to get a general location.  Then you had to search through the grass with your headlamp.

If you look closely, you can see the peeper hiding within the tall grass… actually you don’t have to look that hard at all.

Looks like this group found something…

Yep… Nic’s got one and he seems pretty fired up about it.

A closer look…

A good “Amphibian Hunt” brings out biologists of all ages.  Max brought his friend Hannah along.
What do you have in your hands Hannah?

Good catch Hannah!

Looks like Kevin is sharing his catch with J.J. and Andy.  Show us what you have Kevin…

Very nice!

Kim’s got one…

So does Steve…

Mary and Holly make a great team…

Whoa, look what we have here.  An amphibian egg mass.  Spring Peeper eggs maybe… or something bigger?

After scanning the area,  look who we found… (and not just one, many).
The Leopard Frog (Rana “Litobates” pipiens).

Mary and Holly grab one.  I told you they make a great team.

A closer look… very nice!

J.J., Graham, and Andy worked well together, spotting over 40 Spring Peepers and roughly
15 Leopard frogs.  Nice job guys!

On several occasions they called me over to observe peepers in mid call.  Check out this one…

Here’s another.  Check out that vocal sac.

Graham even found a predaceous diving beetle.  Not an amphibian, but, “there ain’t no shame in that”…

But the find of the night goes to our President of the club, Gil Montague.
Have a look at this… peepers in “amplexus”.  It doesn’t get any better than this.  Nice one Gilbert!

On the way back, Gil also found this Spotted Salamander (Ambystoma maculatum) in the small pond.
We have been finding them in the small pond for the last 5 years.  This is good news to us.
We hope they continue to use the pond as a breeding pool.

We came, we saw, we caught some amphibians!

I believe everyone who attended caught at least one amphibian, if not more.

I apologize to those of you that I didn’t photograph… I’ll get you next time.

In the end, we had a great time!

This picture of Paul Moeller sums up the whole evening!

Until next time…

First Trip of The Year is a Success…

More to come…

Our first trip of the 2010/2011 school year will be this Saturday.

Trip details…

Trip: Land Lab Hike

Where: Independence Land Lab/Outdoor Education Center

Date of trip: Saturday, September 4th

Time: 9:00 A.M. – 12:00 P.M.-ish

What to bring:

• Dress appropriately for the weather & activity.
(It might be wet… raincoat & boots if needed.)

• Excitement and enthusiasm.
(That’s a given…)

If you are interested in participating, please see Mr. Maretka for details!

*You need to sign up for this trip.

Hello again!

The Independence Biology Society Blog has been activated again!

We have been lying dormant for many months… but we are back!

* We have been on many adventures since we last posted.
We are presently working on getting pictures in order post.
Our goal is to keep you updated as we go and fill in the gaps from before.

Wish us luck and check back with us please!

Thank you!

This past Friday a select few attended this years Wild & Scenic Environmental Film Festival at the
Cleveland Museum of Natural History.

The Gang… (Alexa got cut off on the left… sorry Alexa).

This past weekend we headed out to the farm… Derthick’s Farm in Mantua Ohio.

Last year we had visited the Derthick’s Corn Maze and had such a great time that we had to return again this year.

Here’s the Gang just off the bus and ready to go…

Derthick’s Farm is located in Northeast Ohio in the small town of Mantua.
Each year the Derthick Family shares a portion of their farm with the public by providing
A fun-filled, fall activity for families and friends to participate in.  

The Derthicks Corn Maze for 2009.
This year’s maze design is a haunted house and witch with the word SMILE…
A total of 5 miles of trails.

Once in the maze, your goal is to locate 12 checkpoints throughout the
5 miles of maze trails and punch your “map-card” at each station.

Each station has a unique hole punch, making sure you found each individual
check point.

Once again we broke up into small groups and made it a competition to see which group could make it to every check point in the shortest amount of time… this of course by staying on the trails and not cutting through the corn.  If you recall last year, Team Linscott finished first followed closely by Team Maretka/Montague/Moore.

Here’s the Gang listening to the rules of the maze just before the start of the competition.

Once in the maze, it’s time to pick a Team leader… Who will it be?

Finding the first checkpoint is always crucial…

A check point consists of a map and a specific hole punch to punch your card.
Kevin & Adam check the map for their location… 

A close up of the checkpoint…

Kevin proceeds to punch their team’s card as Adam plans their next move…

Punch & go…  It’s Official, Team Campbell is in the competition.

Let’s take a look at a few of the other teams…

Team Baran… consisting of Tom Baran, Alexa Indriolo, Jimmy Cooper, Natalie Wetzel, and Greg Kula.

Team Klindworth… consisting of Mike Zielinski, Marty Kurkul and Annie Klindworth.

Team Glover… consisting of Feby Mathew, Mateusz Bratko, Michael Glover, David Andexler,
Hannah Stanley, and Micro-Bratko (Dawid).

Team Hajek… consisting of Robin Hajek and Janet Wong.

There were a few other teams competing that were not photographed in the maze.
I apologize… but the big guy is old and slow and easily disoriented… therefore he was limited on his
maze maneuverability.

Evening fell upon us while we were in the maze…

More to come…

The Biology Society set out on their first adventure for the new school year this past weekend.

A group of 35 students (Members & potential members) got together this past Saturday and
travelled to the Cuyahoga Valley National Park (CVNP) to explore the ledges of Virginia Kendall.

Here’s the gang eager to set out on our first adventure of the 2009/2010 school year…

More to come…

This past weekend a few of us got together to participate in this year’s River Sweep.

The River Sweep is Ohio’s largest “done-in-a-day” environmental cleanup  
and this year was their 20th anniversary.

We volunteered to clean a small tributary of the Cuyahoga River located in Independence, Ohio.
This tributary runs along the proposed trail that will eventually connect the city of Independence
to the towpath.

Here’s the Gang, gloved up and ready to go… 

Maxwell joined the crew to help with the clean up…

After a group photo, we headed down the trail to the tributary…
 

Our first sign of debris was in a small vernal pool way before we even got to the tributary.
Jimmy spotted an old glass bottle.  
While Jimmy takes care of the bottle, Gil rummages in the pool to try
catch a green frog…
 

Gil missed the green frog, but caught a crayfish instead…

A closer look at this small fresh water crustacean…
 

After our vernal pool clean-up and small biological encounter, we head further down the trail…
 

Once we made it to the tributary, we spread out and started to clean up the stream and it’s surrounding areas…

Megan battles a plastic bag stuck in the rocks… 
 

Max finds a plastic bottle.  Plastic bottles and plastic bags made up the majority of debris we found. 

While collecting garbage, we couldn’t help but appreciate the wildlife around us.
Emilie found an American toad (Bufo americanus). 

A closer look at our amphibian friend…

The clean up continues…

Nicole, Cheyenne, Emilie, and Dean show off their bounty of trash…
 

Throughout the day we encountered many toads of all sizes and color variations…
 

Holly and Mary maneuver down the waterfall collecting trash as they go…
 

We came across this bed of mayapples (Podophyllum peltatum) and if you look closely there is a morel hidden amongst them…
 

The flower of the mayapple…
 

The morel is a very tasty fungus and many fungus hunters are very competitive when it comes to their favorite hunting spot.  I hope we haven’t given away someone’s hunting spot…
 

The sweep continued…
 

Cheyenne found a good place to cross the stream…
 

Nicole hands Rachel some trash… careful ladies.
 

We are getting near the end of our designated section of the stream…
 

We took a small break on top of “Graffiti Bridge”…

Gil found this slipper with moss growing on it…

After our short break, we gathered our bags and headed out…

As we walked out, Michael spotted something in the grass…

Sure enough, a garter snake (Thamnophis sirtalis)… and this little guy was ornery.
Nice catch Michael!
 

After our encounter with the garter snake, we noticed a few more vernal pools
and decided to check them out… and sure enough there was debris to be cleaned up…

Gil found more plastic bottles…
 

Kevin uses a stick to fish out an aerosol can…

Hey look, there’s a green frog (Rana clamitans)…

Gil got him…  good catch Gilbert!

The green frog up close and personal…

Also in this area we encountered more toads…

Look at this big boy…

Can you see this one?

This little guy had some cool coloration…

This one was in a dark color morph…

 

There were about a dozen more toads caught and released that were not pictured.

It was a good day for toads…

Dean didn’t find a toad, but he did find this worm.
This was Dean’s first “Bio. outing” so we thought it was picture worthy. 
Nice find Dean, we hope you come back on another adventure…  

After we cleaned the vernal pools, it was time to gather the rest of our trash and head out…

Notice the the bike being carried out…  it is amazing what was found today.

We are almost there… 

Ahhhh… We made it!

We came, we saw, we swept that river clean…

If I may quote Dr. Seuss’s The Lorax, “Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot,
nothing is going get better, it’s not.”
 

Thanks to all who participated in this years River Sweep!

Until our next adventure…