Monday, 6/2

- Finally, a day where the majority of it was not actually spent sitting around in the dark VC. Did some garlic mustard (invasive species) removal at Chapman's State Park, which meant "weeding the forest", as Morgan said. Garlic mustard is really easy to identify and comes out of the ground really easily, so it really wasn't that bad. The forest was mostly Paw Paw trees, so there wasn't anything spiky to run into and the ground was mostly poison ivy free. At one point, we were wading through a lot of waist-high grass, which led to everyone but me being covered in ticks (though i did find my first one when i got home, happily attached).

Garlic Mustard:


- Animal sightings: A half-dead black rat snake lying on the road... Tara had to put it out of its misery. It was pretty intense. Also, Kristin found what seemed to be a hognose snake (our first one), still alive.

Sunday, 6/1

- Took the Girl Scouts out for a canoe ride up to the Patuxent. Someone had to stay back in the VC (where the power was out) and tell visitors they couldn't use the bathroom. That person was me, and the visitors were a never ending parade of cyclists in spandex.

- Animal sightings: Painted turtle, swimming in the pond behind the VC. Lots of bullfrogs, but they wouldn't hold still for a picture... every time I walked by they would go "BREEEP!" loudly and jump into the pond with a loud splash. I tried sitting on the bridge and waiting for one to poke its head out, but they're too smart for me.
Painted Turtle:


- Also saw a brown thrasher attacking a black rat snake! This is apparently the national crest of Mexico (sort of), and it was the sign that it was time to found a country.

The seal of Mexico: