Day Four

We woke up this morning to the delicious smell of cold cereal and burnt toast. After we were ready, we headed down to the classroom to learn how to spot and recognize different kinds of birds and headed out to find them. We saw several different species including barn swallows, American Goldfinches, Tree Swallows, Canadian Geese, Pelicans, Herring Gulls, House Wrens, Cormorants, and Turkey Vultures. Once we had returned, we had a lunch of cold sandwiches for the third day running!!! when we had finished our pitiful lunch, we went back to the class room as Nels explained what a GPS was, how to use it, and what a GIS was. Then we headed out into the field to use them and take some environmental measurements, such as temperature, humidity, wind speed, and light. Half of us went into wooded areas, while the others went into the Tall Grass Prairie. When we got back, Nels showed us how to up load this information into a GIS, or Geographical Information System. During free time we hung around reading or labeling the insects we had caught yesterday. Dinner arrived at 6:00 and we had a delicious supper of spaghetti, breadsticks, and fruit salad. Once Troy arrived, he showed us how to use and set small box traps. Then we realized the last person to use them was too lazy to clean them out, so we had to get soaked while cleaning out the peanut butter and bird seed. After they were clean, we set some some out in the woods, and some in the prairie. When they were all set, we returned to the classroom and finished labeling our insect collections. Then we started placing them in our collector's boxes. End of day four.