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[Michael Wolfe]

Last weekend, I had the opportunity to do some outreach at a meeting of the Georgia DNR Adopt A Stream program. In the morning, we were able to set up a table. We talked to folks about seining, snorkeling, fish identification and the NANFA Mission and Objectives. We also handed out flyers about our grant programs and old issues of American Currents. These people are all interested in the health of their local streams and so were pretty interested in Georgia fishes as well.


After the open session we took a group of about 20 people down to a nearby stream. These were people who had signed up for our class in advance, so they knew they might get wet. We showed them how to seine and observe fish and took a few photos. Most of the usual suspects were seen in this Atlanta area stream: Yellowfin shiners, Bandfin shiners, Bluehead chubs, Blackbanded darters, Northern hogsuckers, and Redbreast and Green Sunfish. But the highlight of the day for me was a new species for me… Southern Brook Lamprey.


I had never noticed the edge of the oral disk before. But look closely at the lips (can you have lips if you don’t have jaws?) and the shadow that they cast. It almost appears to be fringed or serrated. Look at this lamprey face…


And of course you have to photograph the lamprey mouth…


And in the “not really a fish, but named for a fish”… these are a small native wild flower called a Trout Lily


And in the non-fish category we saw a lot of these guys…


And in the not even in the water, but crossed our path on the hike back to the meeting… why did the chicken snake cross the road? (I know it is a black rat snake, but chicken snake is a southern common name and makes for a better joke).


Altogether a good day of outreach and making connections with others here in Georgia that care about our watery environments.

[mattknepley]

Great job, Michael! Glad to see your outreach efforts rewarded you with such an interesting collection trip!