Summer Camp

This year I went to really cool summer camp. It is called the Wildlife Conservation Camp. I wrote a journal of all the activities but it would be A LOT of information for this blog, so here are some of the highlights, along with pictures, of course!

During this camp we learned about habitat management and plant identification as well as other outdoor activities. The camp took place at the Welder Wildlife Foundation near Corpus Christi Texas. Throughout the camp I took a lot of pictures of the plants and animals that I saw there.

All the people at the camp, including the adults, were divided into four teams and each team was given a color: the blue team (my team), the green team, the yellow team, and the light blue team. Each team chose a team name, and my team was called the "Texas Daggers."  I drew a picture that would represent our team for the week!

During the week, there were several activities that the teams competed.  Whichever team got the most points at the end of the camp was the best team.  My team got the most points, so we got a lot of cool prizes.

I especially enjoyed being able to take pictures of the various insects, reptiles, birds and mammals.  One of the first pictures taken at camp was this bright green walking stick that I found on the screened in pavilion.

The preying mantis was actually a "pet" of the presenter.  It was interesting because it was two-toned to make it appear to be a stick with a leaf!

I would love to know what this caterpillar is...so if anyone knows let me know in the comments.  I even have my insect expert stumped!  However, he did tell me the moth is a salt marsh moth.

My favorite creatures from camp were the reptiles!  I was able to hold a bearded dragon, which liked to pose for the camera.  However, my favorite one was the legless lizard.  We were told the way to determine if it is a snake or a lizard...look at the eyelids...if eyelids are present it is a lizard and if not it is a snake!

We also saw a few snakes in the wild.  We found a rat snake and my friend Kenneth picked it up.  He got bit, but thankfully these snakes are not venomous!  He did not pick it up correctly, so I picked it up right behind the head so it could not bite me.  We also found a rattle snake sitting on the cattle guard.  We decided not to take a chance holding this one!

Legless lizards...have eyelids so they blink

Snakes...do not have eyelids, so they do not blink!

Bearded Dragon

I learned a lot of things about nature in this camp and was able to take a lot of cool pictures while I was there. Not all of my pictures were animals.  I also took pictures of the plants and trees.

 I also made a lot of good friends.  After all the activities that we completed together, our team was very close.  We also got to know the members of the other teams.  Here are some of the pictures from the various projects:

A person shooting a net gun to catch animals

My team looking for a geo-cache

A person identifying the type of soil collected

Archery practice with my team

If you look close you can see the arrow!

My chance to try out a bow!

this is my team making a scent station

A person laying on a bed of sargassum

We had a change of scenery on day four of the camp...we headed out to the Gulf of Mexico to learn about this habitat.  Here are a few of my pictures from that day:

A pirate ship we saw in the Gulf of Mexico (a charter ship!)

A brown pelican flying

A striped burr fish that we caught in a net

A great blue heron

A very large hermit crab!

I told you this was going to be a long post!  Here are a few more of my favorite shots from camp:

Our make shift light source

A bird in a tree at the wetland habitat

A damsel fly

I just had to take a picture of the hydrant!

The camp days were very full, which meant staying up late and waking up early.  I am not normally an early riser, but it was worth waking up to see the sunrise each morning.  I looked forward to finding out what the day would bring also.

I would love to go back as a counselor in the future.  I will be presenting what I learned to various groups in my area over the next year.  I am not very good at public speaking, but maybe my excitement for the camp will help me.