Nature Notes
In the “Bass in the Class” program, students raise and care for bass. In our class we have smallmouth bass. We have student aquatic specialists to take care of the fish and rotate this job. While the bass may be entertaining, they are a lot of work to care for. Some of the things we have to do are;
- Clean the tank
- Feed the bass
- Clean the mealworm cage (Yuck!!)
Cleaning the tank is not the worst of these three things. It may not be pleasurable to clean out the filters and rinse them, but it’s not as bad as the mealworm cage. (We actually...
This Bass Blog is from Mrs. Correa's 6th grade class.
Food Fight!
Our fish (bass) have not done much, but they have been eating a lot. When they are done eating, it looks like they are full. Sometimes they fight for the food or chase other bass around. Sometimes they hit themselves on the glass. They hide so they can protect themselves. When they are trying to get away is when they hit themselves on the glass.
~Lizbeth, Yasmeen, Ricky, Christina
Fish are Fun!
We think it is fun to have bass in our class. It...
Autumn is a great time to look for spiders! Spiders grow throughout the spring and summer, reaching their largest mature, and more visible size in the fall. Last week, a Mayslake excursion with Carl Strang really paid off when we found this beautiful banded argiope spider. Distinguishable by their yellow and black markings, argiope spiders are orb weavers, constructing their large webs rather close to the ground in fields and prairies. Their location gives them the best advantage to trap jumping or low flying insects. Here she will wait with her first two pair of legs forward and the hind...
Ms. Oswald, 5th grade
Reporting live from Ms. Oswald’s bass tank…
“The bass have not been doing much besides chasing each other and eating blood worms,” said David.
“What I like about the bas is they suck up their food,” stated Vince.
“I like that they eat blood worms!” shouted Alexys.
“What I have observed about the bass was that some of them have their own hiding spots.” stated Elaine.
“They eat by sucking in and pushing out their gills,” said Xavier.
“I have a pet fish at home and having the bass here is like having Blue fin here. (Blue...
The bass are here! Now that all of your tanks are filled with little smallmouth bass, it’s time to start blogging!
Here at Fullersburg Woods, we have 7 fingerling smallmouth bass (Micropterus dolomieu) who are inhabiting our 65 gallon aquarium in our Visitor Center. Because smallmouth bass like a lot of structure, we have some driftwood decorations for them to swim around in. We also have plenty of plants to create hiding spaces for these territorial fish.
Our fish are happily stuffing themselves with bloodworms every other day. When smallmouth bass are young, they...
It’s that time of year for Fullersburg Woods to begin gearing up for Bass in the Class 2012. Bass in the Class is an 8-week long program in which teachers receive native bass to raise and use as an education tool in their classrooms. Students can receive first-hand experiences of life cycles, ecosystems and animal behavior. At the end of the 8 weeks, students will celebrate and say goodbye to their bass at our Big Bass Release event.
Our Bass Blog will feature different classrooms and their bass tanks. For the first time students and teachers will be able to see others school’s bass...
July’s weather was very hot and dry, with many days reaching the 90’s and 100’s F (this was the hottest July on record for the 48 contiguous states). A few thunderstorms in the second half of the month were not enough to restore surface water to the stream corridor marsh, which went dry on July 17.
Phenology continued to be early compared to the previous 3 years, though the differences decreased in July. Median first flower dates for plants which bloomed in July were 10 days earlier than last year, 6.5 days earlier than in 2010, and 12.5 days earlier than in 2009. Monkey flower was...
The weather in June was seasonable to hot, but was most remarkable for being dry. The phenology continued to be early in both first flower dates and first appearances of insect species. Newly flowering plants in June bloomed a median 17 days earlier than in 2011, 8 days earlier than in 2010, and 19 days earlier than in 2009, values all close to the May medians. Insects that first appeared in June were a median 22 days earlier than in 2011, 15.5 days earlier than in 2010, and 22 days earlier than in 2009.
In this early season, robins were already incubating their second nests as June...
Fellow naturalist Leslie Bertram and I were enjoying our birthdays together at my house last week. Never missing a chance to break out the magnifiers, we decided to investigate a colony of red aphids that had invaded my cup plants. It turned out to be quite rewarding. As pesty as aphids can be, they too have their share of natural predators. First we found a ladybug larva.
Then, a brown lacewing larva, waiting patiently for an opportunity to try out his formidable jaws!
What we found most incredible was discovering delicate green lacewing eggs. Eggs of these aphid predators...
At Waterfall Glen Forest Preserve there is a bird banding station where district ecologists have been banding birds since 2007. Wildlife Ecologist Brian Kraskiewicz, Natural Resources Management Technician James Marshall, and Volunteer Glen Gabanski monitor birds at the site at least eight times that fall in a ten-day period that ranges from late May to early August. The ten nets (at fixed locations) are opened at 6 a.m. and then checked every hour until 12 p.m. The nets are designed to safely trap the birds until one of the researchers frees them. After extracted the birds are put in a...
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