SREL (Savannah River Ecology Lab) Field Trip

Today, Collin and I went to went to the Savannah River Ecology Conference Center. It was tons of fun! We arrived at 9:30. The first hour was explaining the different habitats and traps we would be checking and how to act around them. Then, we were split up into groups. I was in a group with another mom and four boys (including Collin), they were 6,6,7&9. It was a fun group. ;) Here's a shot of our group.... Collin's on the far right and the boy next to him quickly became Collin's best friend. LOL! They had fun together.

Our group was given a ziploc bag (for collecting small animals), a guide with most of the animals, insects and plants we may see so we could identify them and then two stick for looking under traps and things (just in case there were biting animals in there. ;) Here is a picture of Collin with one. After all our groups were split up we went off to the woods to check all the traps.

Here's a turtle he found hiding in a burrow in the woods. Isn't he cute? All the kids got to pet him.

Here is the wolf spider we found in a trap. Collin was given the assignment of carrying him but I held him long enough to take a picture. That's my hand under it's body so it was a pretty big spider. we let him go later. ;)

This was later, in the wetlands. There were fish in the traps.

And a baby turtle.

This turtle -- Musk Turtle (aka stinkpot turtle) -- was on the "wish list" the scientists give them so we had to take him back with us. So... Collin was given the task of carrying him back. ;)

Then we moved on to lunch time. During lunch we also watched a video about the different animals we found. After that, the scientists brought out a bunch of their animals to show the kids. I didn't get pics of all of them but here are some. ;)

A toad

A snapping turtle.

Snapping turtle again.

Glass lizard.

She was showing us the ears on the glass lizard and why it's a lizard and not a snake.

Snake... can't remember what kind.

A 6 month old gator.

A 3 year old gator (Collin gets to know this one a little better later).

Red tailed Hawk

Owl - this was this one's first time coming out to see a lot of people. He was a little scared.

An opossum.

After they were finished all the kids got a chance to hold the alligator or the snake. Collin, of course, wanted to hold both!

Doesn't he look so excited to be holding a gator?

Then, he wanted to hold the corn snake.

Most of the kids were afraid of the snake but they told the kids that if they felt comfortable with it then could put the snake around their neck. They asked Collin if he wanted to and, well, as you can tell, he didn't have a problem with it. ;)

I didn't want to get left out on all the fun so Collin took a picture of me holding the snake. 

 So, now Collin doesn't know how to decide between becoming a physicist or an ecologist. LOL!