Another great question!

O.K. I'm still here waiting for my flight which most likely will be delayed because of the rain in the NY area, and as I was going through some of the photo and videotape footage that I have both taken personally and received from other teachers on this expedition I thought that I would share some more insight into what we did when we went into the field. 

One common question that I saw keep coming up throughout the week was...

Do you collect caterpillars that you already have collected and how do you collect those that blend in so well to their surroundings?

First of all we collect and bag/tag every caterpillar that we find in the field, which happened a lot with a particular caterpillar that by the end of the expedition we began to hate... In fact I found over 25 on one plant alone! Sometimes these little guys can be tricky so we use "very scientific methods" in order to collect these caterpillars! I have a video that shows how "scientific" this method is... bonus points for those of you who mention this video when I see you tomorrow! Yeah it finally downloaded... this is Ms. Espro, another teaching fellow, explaining our methods of finding the "difficult to find" caterpillars!

Afterwards we bag them and write a description on the ziplock bags so that when we got back to the bunkhouse we could ID each of the caterpillars and log them into the researcher's database. Once again I have a video of what this looks like which I will try to upload when back in NY!

However, caterpillars are not the only things we are focusing in on during our time out in the field... remember we are looking at the tritrophic interactions within the selected ecosystems! 

This means that we have to look at the vegetation (plant material) that is in the area because that may have something to do with the abundance or lack of caterpillars found (another great question that I received). This additional data helps the researchers see if there is any other possibilities that could be affecting the caterpillars and their parasitoids! The video that highlights this with Mr. Novelli, another of the teaching fellows, is a definite want to see!

See you all tomorrow!!!

What amazing questions... I just couldn't wait!

Well I'm here at the airport waiting for my flight that isn't for another two hours and I kept getting such wonderful questions that I just had to answer one!!!

One question that keeps coming up is...

Why are the most colorful animals usually also the most poisonous?

This is such a great question and I did a little research on it and found a website that very clearly described why this occurs in nature. I hope this explanation helps!

Coming Home!!!

I can't believe this journey is coming to an end! I'm sitting here in the Park View (looking out onto the beautiful Audubon Park) waiting for my taxi to take me to the airport and back to Long Island... yet I don't feel ready to leave quite yet. It was such a wonderful experience and a taste of what real science is! 

Some of my students have commented on the opportunity to experience something similar and I hope that we will be able to because there is nothing better than exploring and learning through doing! I may not have either a botany or entomology background however I now have such a deeper respect and understanding of both because of my work in the field and that is something that you can never receive from a book. Perhaps I will have to start holding classes outside and exploring the Earth Science that is all around us on our school grounds... depending on the weather that is!

Although there have been many comments on this blog I am going to wait and comment on them in class so that I can pull up the many various pictures that highlight the answers better than I could describe in an online environment. I look forward to being in my classroom with my wonderful students tomorrow and hope that this journey of mine will inspire them to move forward, strive higher, push further towards what they believe is the impossible because I'm sure that they will see as I have, that there is NOTHING that we cannot achieve when we believe in ourselves and try! 

Our Last Day in the Field!

I can't believe that our days in the field are now officially over! I feel that I am now a professional "Caterpillar Hunter"... O.K. perhaps I'm just now even more observant of nature, but I have learned so much from all of the Earthwatch researchers and am so thankful for them taking the time to so patiently teach us so much in so little time! Today was also extremely special because I was able to see and talk to my students again... I really have been missing not talking and sharing all of the experiences in full detail everyday. I have been getting their wonderful posts and cannot wait until Thursday when we can go through all of the pictures and their questions. This blog is only a small excerpt of all that I have been experiencing and I feel that I cannot express everything that there is to share on here... if only I could Skype with my students EVERY day!!! Thankfully I have the rest of the year to share science with them on a daily basis and we will incorporate the spirit of this trip into our time together!

Today was the last day in the field collecting samples (we still have to care for them tomorrow, etc.) and I was fortunate enough to be able to go kayaking for a second time however it was definitely an adventure when we were told by the Wildlife Management Ranger that we should keep an eye out because they had seen a 13 foot alligator in the area. After the SwampFest and learning that if I'm within a 30 foot radius of the alligator there is no escape, this was NOT good news! In fact where we landed on the river bank we saw multiple FRESH alligator foot prints (see below) and when stepping out of the kayak  in order to put on my boots I almost lost my flip flops (see how mud logged they were) and instead got to "enjoy" a Louisiana pedicure when I put my socks on over my mud encrusted feet! The soft silk could not withstand our heavy steps and it was good to get onto higher and more solid ground! 

Once we hiked to our plot I was constantly looking about to make sure no snakes or alligators were around but we did see evidence of a snake... a molted skin (see below)! We are not exactly sure of which snake it was, however our fearless guide believes that it is from a baby Water Moccasin! YIKES!!! Thankfully we didn't see any real snakes. Although I searched for over an hour for any kind of caterpillar in my zones (even after hitting the branches with the beat stick and beat cloth) I could not find any caterpillars. Instead I found some interesting friends who you can see below! 

I have stepped out of my comfort zone on this expedition and have loved every minute of it. I have always loved hiking and exploring the various trails that the places I visit have to offer, however I now have a new found love for exploring "the wild"! I cannot wait until I work with my students to help decide how we can take this shared experience and do something locally. I know that this post is not my last one, but it will be my last one in the "bunkhouse". Tomorrow afternoon we head back to Tulane with all of the caterpillars and make sure that they are taken care of in their labs in order to further continue watching their progress in their life cycles and possible exposure to parasitoids. I look forward to working there and sharing this experience will everyone tomorrow!

Wow! The weekend is almost over and we have fit so much in! Today we left the beautiful Park View Guest House (see picture below) in the morning and headed back to Slidell and the swamp for some more hunting. Although I was really sad to say goodbye to New Orleans and civilization I was excited to find such amazing new caterpillars that nobody has yet found during this expedition, like the Red-Eyed Button Slug (see below)... a stinging variety and another unknown caterpillar (see last photo) that I'm looking forward to identifying tomorrow because it looks like a snake almost! 

Happy Day of the Dead Everyone! In order to celebrate those who have passed on I thought I would also share with you some of our caterpillars who are losing their lives due to parasitoids that we found yesterday. Both of these caterpillars have been parasitized by wasps and you can clearly see the wasp eggs attached to the caterpillars. Yesterday we also had the wonderful opportunity to have a talk by our lead researcher on this project, Dr. Lee Dyer, who mentioned that the main difference between a parasite and a parasitoid is that a parasitoid almost always kills its host by feeding on its organs before hatching out of its host. I thought his talk regarding the research was so informative and I can't wait to discuss it with all of my students on Monday when we get the chance to conference again!

Since yesterday was Halloween we did come out of the swamp in Slidell and came back into the Big Easy to celebrate with the whole town! It was quite an experience, and one that I'm sure I will not forget. It was so much fun to meet up with our Earthwatch researchers and see the town through their eyes!

Today was quite fun because in Audubon Park, which is located directly next to the Bed and Breakfast we are staying at while in New Orleans was having a Louisiana Swampfest which was an experience that I had to have and share with my students! For lunch I had the "Alligator Wrap" (with Louisiana hot sauce on it of course) which was so delicious... it really does not taste any different than chicken though. I wish we could get some good Alligator up North so that I could have everyone try it! I also had the opportunity to see an alligator feeding (thankfully it was not me) and learned that what I thought was true about escaping alligators (running in a zig-zag pattern) is simply not true and that if you are within a 30 ft. diameter of a gator that you are pretty much history. I'm not so sure I want to go back to the swamp tomorrow morning and head back into the field now!!! We have three more days of swamp living to go... which may be hard after coming back to civilization for two nights, but we are in need of more data so that the study can be strengthen even further and more can be learned about the tritrophic levels of interaction that we are studying! More tomorrow... stay tuned!

Finally... A Snake!

Well today was such a fun day because I finally got to see my students today and talk to them for 40 minutes and share my experience with them more personally! Using their questions (which I was thrilled that they took so seriously) I was able to be sure to answer what they wanted to know and was thrilled that they had such wonderful questions while I was talking to them. I'm thrilled that I was able to more fully share this experience with them and I think that they could really see the excitement I am experiencing... I only wish they were hiking through the woods with me to fully experience it!

I finally saw a snake today as we were about to head into the swamp for another plot this afternoon, but thankfully it was a baby and too small to do any damage but it made me think that there has to be a mama or papa snake around which had me looking and stomping that much more on our way toward the plot!

I have to say that completing the plots is definitely getting easier, which makes it more enjoyable. I found some great caterpillars today and look forward to processing them tomorrow morning to find out their names because one I have not seen before! Afterwards we are headed back into New Orleans where we are going to meet up with Dr. Dyer and have him discuss his research even more which should be extremely interesting. Afterwards we are off for the evening to enjoy Halloween New Orleans style... this should be interesting with all of the vampire and voodoo stories that run rampart around here! If I see any interesting costumes I will be sure to share! Have a happy and safe Halloween everyone!