Naturalist Adventure – Big Lake State Park

June 23, 2018

We participated in the Missouri State Park’s Naturalist Program  – Bike and Hike at Big Lake State Park.  The program was hosted by Amanda, who works for the Missouri State Parks and is their Naturalist/Eco-Interrupter.  She was super knowledgeable about all the wildlife and ecology at Big Lake State Park, as well as other parks around Missouri.  She also had a Master’s in Biology.

There were signs posted in the Shower House as well as the camp host came around and told us about the program and the time to meet.

Station One

Our adventure started out with a bike ride to the lake near the boat dock.

The kids could look into water taken from the lake, with small creatures floating around.  Kids could make a magnifier to look into the water from a cup or plastic bottle with saran wrap held on with a rubber band.  Holding the cup down into the water helped see the creatures floating around in the water.

Next the kids could take nets and take a swipe through the water to see if they could get anything they could magnify.  My daughter caught 1 little minnow her first swipe, and then 2 smaller minnows the second time!  She could have sat there all day and played with the net and would have caught minnows all day if she could of.   There were books and information about what types of organisms and creatures that could be living in ponds or lakes, and my daughter enjoyed learning about all these, as well as seeing them up close!

Station Two

Our next station was a little further out on the island or peninsula.  The second station was set up for the kids to learn about casting a fishing line.  Kids could measure how far they could cast their line.  Again, my daughter just loved this and one of her casts was over 53 feet long.  During this time, Amber the naturalist talked about the types of fish found in Big Lake that included, blue gill, etc.

Station Three

Back on our bikes to go to the other side of the island or peninsula to see if we could find any fresh water shrimp.  The kids again got to put their nets into the water and see if they could find any fresh water shrimp or any other creatures living in the water.  Unfortunately, there were no one found any fresh water shrimp, but there were more small water bugs and other creatures that they found.  We also learned about what to look out for while we were hiking around, including the trees filled with vines of Poison Ivy.  Amber taught us the saying – “Leaves of Three, let it Be” and “If It is Hairy, it is Scary”.

Station Four

It was then time to get back on our bikes and go to another area of the lake for the 4^th and final station – Sit and Listen.  At this station, the kids were to sit and be super quiet for a minute and a half, and listen to all the sounds they could and see if they could identify them.  We heard different birds, sounds coming from the lake, including jet skis and boats and even a dog barking in the distance.  Amber identified some of the bird sounds coming from house wrens and red winged black birds.

Summary

This event was a fun event and took a little less than 2 hours to complete.  The bike ride, learning about nature and enjoying the beautiful park was a great experience, and something we would love to participate in again.  There are several programs offered throughout the state of Missouri as well as other state parks.  I encourage anyone that has the chance while they are camping to participate in these activities.  Amber was a great guide and really knew what she was talking about, and really could engage kids.  It made a wonderful learning experience.