June 7, 2024
This week, we were all about the fish! On Monday, we got going with our project—a rubber-coated screen setup at the Lord’s Pond fish ladder. This helps us catch fish safely when they reach the top. We’re doing this every morning throughout June, maybe even into July. It’s crucial for us to see how many fish can make it up to the screen. That tells us how well the fish ladder is working and if we need to make any changes in the future.
Besides our fish checks, we spent Monday, Wednesday, and Friday checking on our bird boxes. Great news—they’re all doing egg-cellent!
On Tuesday and Wednesday mornings, Matt went to a Wood and Fish Habitat course hosted by Jud Kratzer from Vermont Fish & Wildlife. Learning about optimizing our stream habitats will be super handy later in the season.
While Matt was at his course, Ryan, Keiran, and Ashton were busy with park maintenance, pulling out watercress and invasive bittersweet nightshade at Westmoreland River Nature Park. These invasive plants cause all sorts of problems for the fish and the environment. It wasn’t easy, but it was well worth it once we finished.
Thursday was all about checking on the amphibians populations in the area and dealing with more pesky invasive plants at Daryl Guignion Memorial Park in Crapaud. To cap off the week, Friday brought with it two cool experiences. One with Matt Ginn from Forest, Fish & Wildlife who took Matt, Fletcher, and Keiran bank swallow banding in the morning. In the afternoon, retired wildlife biologist Rosemary Curley took us all on a mushroom walk to gather data as citizen scientists.
Get out and watch some birds!
-Love SSWA
