Coyote helps students fill out site survey forms

Right on cue, a coyote strolled across a trail this morning.

The ninth-graders participating in Baytown Nature Center's Back to the Bay program were on a bridge filling out their site survey forms.

They were at the bottom of the page putting check marks next to fish, birds, insects.

Then the students looked around for wildlife.

Holly, our leader, was saying that meant coyotes, bobcats, opossums when a student pointed toward a coyote. It was about 50 yards away and had stopped to glance our way before ducking away.

That was an extra cool moment on this cloudy 50-degree day.

Later the students put on waders to pull a seine. The big catches were a hermit crab, grass shrimp and  little blue crabs.

The teacher promised that anyone who caught a fish with the cast nets could skip the next test. They tried valiantly but only came up with some comb jelly.

The teacher agreed to add five points to their test scores for comb jelly catches.

Fish of the day: mullet

Not all the ninth-graders who arrive at Baytown Nature Center for the Back to the Bay program are happy about being outdoors. It can be too hot or too cold. And sometimes insects are an extra bother.

But all the students seem to enjoy catching something with cast nets during Aquatic Organism Collection.

Today's biggest catch was mullet.

With the seine net, students in waders hauled in grass shrimp, a small flounder and more comb jelly.

Mullet portrait

Trying to scoop up Comb Jelly caught in a cast net.

Another mullet for show-and-tell and then back into the water.

Then the rains came on this September morning.

Yep, the water is extra turbid today

The high-schoolers showed up and so did the rain.

But the Baytown Nature Center's staffers and volunteers aren't wimps. And the exceptional group of students didn't mind getting wet on a warm day.

So we dodged raindrops while calculating the turbidity, salinity, pH, dissolved oxygen and nitrate levels.

Note the tarp-holding technique of the dedicated volunteer (below) protecting students conducting water tests during a cloudburst. -- Lana b.

The sample of water in the bucket pulled from the bridge gets an infusion of rainwater.