Handing out cooked invasive species samples
Setting up a turtle trap at McCrea Pt.
Crew with first Spiny
Erros, Griffin, and Adolf with our first Spiny
We built bottle traps to trap small fish and macroinvertebrates.
The beginning stages of building our platform traps, otherwise known as basking traps.
Building platform traps, also to be deployed to trap spiny softshell turtles
Seeing our target turtle for the first time.
Spiny Softshell Turtles
Spiny softshell turtle eggs in a nest dug along the bank of the Chadakoin.
Learning how to set hoop traps for turtles.
This is one big American Bullfrog! We found this male hanging out in the lilypads along the outlet.
Royal Fern, a special plant species that appears to be abundant along the outlet of the river.
Snapping Turtle Eggs
A seemingly unamused American Toad.
Sawfly larvae, an insect that was challenging to ID as we initially thought it was a type of butterfly caterpillar.
Black-Crowned Night Heron-a new bird for the Chadakoin River!
A Green Heron catches a fish at McCrea Point
Viceroy caterpillar-we captured this caterpillar and watched it turn into a chrysalis and into a butterfly!
Mallard Ducklings enjoy the sunshine on the Chadakoin River
While walking along the trails near McCrea Point Park, we came across a couple baby meadow voles.
Mallard Ducklings follow their mom down the Chadakoin River
A friendly katydid.
A Green Heron perched on the breakwall looking for lunch
“Sheila” our wolf spider we captured and have been studying over the course of the summer.
We caught this little painted turtle, along with several others, along the Chadakoin.
Capturing odonates on the river.
A Cedar Waxwing takes a break from catching flying insects
Learning how to properly handle a turtle (snapping turtle in this case).
Common Musk Turtle we caught in one of our hoop traps.
Seeing young musky in the hatchery and learning about how they are raised, maintained and released.
Learning about fishery practices carried out in Chautauqua County.
Learning about sustainable forestry from Jeff Brockelbank, NYS DEC.
Exploring Chautauqua Gorge on one of our many field trips
Testing the Chadakoin for the presence of micro-plastics.
Deploying hoop traps as another method to trap turtles.
We found several magnificent bryozoans in the Chadakoin this summer.
Osprey
Kayaking the Outlet of Chautauqua Lake
Getting instruction on how to kayak from Evergreen Outfitters
Using a seine net, on loan from DEC, to try to capture our target turtle species.
During our clean up we removed 18 tires, an old TV, house siding and lots of shingles.
Jeremy, Erros and the rest of the PWA crew was hard at work removing garbage so that it would no longer pollute the important habitats the Chadakoin provides.
We removed two of these big bins from the trails along the river!
Chadakoin Clean-Up removing lots of scrap metal.
As you can see we overfilled a dumpster with the garbage we removed from the Chadakoin River.
We had a red-eared slider turtle as well as other visual displays to tell of what we saw and learned this summer.
Our last day together consisted of showcasing what we learned this summer.
Our display at the inaugural Riverwalk Festival.
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