The weekend after we got back from the Smokies, Mom and Dad came to Columbia and picked Jenna, our friend Andy, and myself up and we headed to the Big Piney River south of Devil's Elbow, MO. The water was pretty chilly, but we spent a few hours snorkeling and watching the fish. The water was about 3 feet deep, but the current was quite strong. If you stayed in the current, it was surprising how fast you would end up quite a distance downstream. We saw several species of fish and a map turtle. We tried to video some of our adventure with Dad's GoPro, but we didn't quite get the quality we were hoping for. We decided to chalk this up as a learning experience with the camera. Here's a video we came up with.
This past weekend was my Grandma March's 84th birthday and my Dad and Mom hosted the party for her. It's always good to see family. Since the party was on Sunday afternoon, we all decided to kayak Saturday. We took off from the Bee Trace area at Long Branch Lake and headed north. We were hoping to see some shorebirds along the mudflats. The only shorebirds we saw were Killdeer. There were plenty of gulls, cormorants, an eagle, and many passerines. On the way to the end, Dad saw something splashing and went to investigate. He thought it was a catfish on a trot line. When he got closer, he saw that it was a turtle. The turtle was barely in the water and the rest of the line was quite a ways out of the water. This means that the turtle had been there for quite some time. We were able to free the turtle which was hooked through the shell. He was still quite feisty which is a good thing because it means that he still had energy. Here are some pictures.
Hanging by the shell
Spiny Softshell (Apalone spinifera)
Jenna holding her first Softshell Turtle
On the17th, Jenna's brother Matt and I went to look for salamanders. It had rained lightly all day, but the temperature was actually rising into the mid seventies. After a couple miles of walking in the dark, we found no salamanders. We did find a lot of small bullfrogs, some leopard frogs, and quite a few toads. Maybe we can find something this weekend.
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