I spent my first day as a Rio Ranger!
There were two zoo employees and three volunteers, besides myself. Three classes of third and fourth graders came from a local elementary school for the field trip. Some of the kids have never been to a natural habitat like this, so hiking was a real treat for them. We gave them a paper with things (birds, tracks, plants and animals) to look for along the way. We went on a 3-1/2 mile hike down into the bosque (woods) along the Rio Grande river.
We came upon a sandy beach where we found shells!
I was surprised to see porcupines high up in the trees. They climb up there and eat the bark.
We saw a bald eagle flying around searching for food. A crow flew up to it and actually seemed to attack it. Then they flew together for a while until we lost sight of the strange pair.
We found the scattered remains of one unlucky rabbit right along the trail. The kids really liked seeing that!
We found all sorts of animal tracks and then we had lunch at Tingley Beach and watched all the ducks and geese swimming around. One gaggle of eight Canada Geese swam around like imperial stormtroopers. They honked as they swam in and cleared out the other birds. It was funny. Well, maybe you had to be there. I finally remembered that I had a camera on my phone so I took a picture of the ducks and geese but I wished that I'd taken a photo of the porcupine.
Next time, I'll have to remember to bring my camera.
I didn't get to see any cormorants, but I did see lots of different ducks, geese, cranes, and a heron.
With it's cormorants and leaves - song: She'll drive the big car, artist: David Bowie, album: Reality
There were two zoo employees and three volunteers, besides myself. Three classes of third and fourth graders came from a local elementary school for the field trip. Some of the kids have never been to a natural habitat like this, so hiking was a real treat for them. We gave them a paper with things (birds, tracks, plants and animals) to look for along the way. We went on a 3-1/2 mile hike down into the bosque (woods) along the Rio Grande river.
We came upon a sandy beach where we found shells!
I was surprised to see porcupines high up in the trees. They climb up there and eat the bark.
We saw a bald eagle flying around searching for food. A crow flew up to it and actually seemed to attack it. Then they flew together for a while until we lost sight of the strange pair.
We found the scattered remains of one unlucky rabbit right along the trail. The kids really liked seeing that!
We found all sorts of animal tracks and then we had lunch at Tingley Beach and watched all the ducks and geese swimming around. One gaggle of eight Canada Geese swam around like imperial stormtroopers. They honked as they swam in and cleared out the other birds. It was funny. Well, maybe you had to be there. I finally remembered that I had a camera on my phone so I took a picture of the ducks and geese but I wished that I'd taken a photo of the porcupine.
Next time, I'll have to remember to bring my camera.
I didn't get to see any cormorants, but I did see lots of different ducks, geese, cranes, and a heron.
With it's cormorants and leaves - song: She'll drive the big car, artist: David Bowie, album: Reality
5 comments:
Great post. That sounds like a whole bunch of fun. Good for you.
Dan
Now that's the kind of volunteering I bet you're enjoying.
Hiking outside in the Bosque with beautiful sunny New Mexico weather. I must admit, I'm a little bit envious.
Now, if only all your volunteering assignments were this much fun :)
~Lisa
What a fun thing to do!!! So you have to volunteer for a bio class??? I swear professors get together and scheme up ways to make our lives more miserable...lol!!!
yeah, this semester, I have to do 30 hours volunteering in something related to Biology, PLUS my income tax prepartation class which ALSO requires 30 hours of service. Good thing I'm not working. LOL!
I want to see a porcupine in a tree! Daisy Mae is too precious with her tongue out!
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