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NFC: Fw: FWL: Re: Collecting
from Bill Duzen:
Went collecting
yesterday afternoon with a couple of friends and a couple of
6 and 10 year
old kids. Seeing the expressions on the kids faces every time
they
were able to catch something made the whole trip more than worthwhile.
At the first site, a drainage pond between the road and some railroad
tracks
we caught many brook sticklebacks, some Eastern newts, and some dwarf
crayfish. One of the crayfish (all were the same size 1 1/2 ") was an
overall copper-orange color. The front pinchers of all the crayfish were
very
small, almost as small as a prawns. Does anyone know of a book on
North
American crayfish? Also caught were bull frog tadpoles and three
other kinds
of tadpoles that I put in one of my ponds to see what they grow
up to be.
The second site was a small brook that I hoped to find
some more of the
livebearing apple size snails that I found the previous
summer. No snails
but many Pumpkinseeds, Blue gills and I think some
Pumpkinseed X BlueGill
hybrid that had a violet sheen on its flanks.
The third site was Big Sisters Creek that drains into Lake Erie.
There we
found some of the brightest and deep blue colored Rainbow
darters I have ever
seen. Also caught were breeding pairs of central
stonerollers ( Campostoma
anomalum), a huge Common shiner ( Notropis
cornutus), about 8 inches, and
some pairs of Long nosed dace (Rhinichthys
cataractae). Also, we found some
Black nosed Dace (Rhinichthys
atratulus).
The fourth site was Delaware Creek, also draining into Lake
Erie, we found
some Fantail darters, different colored Rainbow darters (not
as much blue as
the ones from Big Sisters) Johnny Darters and some more
central stonerollers.
Water temperature was about 48 degrees in the
creeks and 55 in the drainage
pond. All and all it was a very nice way
to pass an afternoon.