Outdoors Maryland; 1405

This program has been made possible by the members of NPT. Thank you for your generous support. Coming up listening long to the insistent song of warm summer nights happily paddling one of Maryland's majestic rivers. The Patuxent. And taking to the water in search of hope for the Chesapeake. Next. Outdoors Maryland is produced in cooperation with the Maryland Department of Natural Resources. DENR. Inspired by Nature. Thanks.

But. You know if it is. This is the Serenade of a balmy late summer evening sounds conjuring memories of Blasi long days. In nature's vast memory this chorus has echoed for more than 300 million years. Insect songs were already ancient by the age of the dinosaurs. Wil Hershberger has been fascinated by natural sounds like these ever since he can remember the passion began with birds. He's president of the Frederick County chapter of the Maryland ornithological society will pursue

training in natural sound recording at Cornell University's famous Laboratory of Ornithology. His bird amphibian and insect recordings are archived at their library of natural sounds. The largest repository of bird songs in the world. Now with partner Steve Runnels will has produced a digitally recorded identification guide on CD of songs of 43 species of crickets and katydids. I guess it's a lot like bird watching sound recording becomes an addiction and you try to find as much time to get out and record as you can toward late summer and autumn. The birds stop singing the frogs have stop saying that the insects are really making a lot of noise. So I thought well try recording insects. It wasn't until the age of digital recording that Will was finally satisfied with the fidelity of his insect recordings.

It is kind of funny that in order to get a really representative sound of something like a singing insect a very primitive sound you have to have state of the art equipment for the fidelity to be high enough for it to sound as real as it as it does you know is it. Is it real or is it memory. One of the interesting things about this digital era is being able to separate species that sound really somewhere to one another. And in this example the first one is Allard ground cricket and the second is tinkling ground cricket. If you look at sound spectrograms of the calls you can distinctly see that they're different even though they sound similar. Seeking out the insects to record is part of the irresistible lure Worldwide there are thousands tens of thousands of species a fourth option

or thought turns are the flat winged insects crickets katydids. There's false Katy did see meadow grasshoppers and all this Butterworth Opterons. And in this area there are probably hundreds or thousands of species but the ones that really sing loud and that you could track down and find and have a chance of identifying are between 40 and 45 species during the day. These insects are often very well-hidden trying to stay away from predators. Most of them are active only at night. This is a fast calling tree cricket. Qantas Solera nicked us. It's one of the few tree crickets that can be active during the day. Actually singing and attracting mates and hunting. Most people when they hear the word cricket think of the big dark shiny round headed crickets that you see in and around the house. But there are many many different forms. They can be Leaf mimics.

They can look like pieces of twigs and. Even some of them they're really tiny. Bush crickets produce an unbelievably loud sound. This is oblong wing. Katy did. It's an inhabitant of open woods and. They typically sing in the evening they overwinter as a GPS in the once it gets warm so it would be mid to late spring. They hatch and they go through. It depends on the species. Between 5 and 14 in stars and in Star would be a developmental stage. Once it gets so big it has to shed its exoskeleton and then grow into the next one and grow into the next one. There is going to sing for us. So once they grow up the males will saying in the singing insects sound is used for attracting mates. There are special songs that are given if another male of the same species is in your territory

then some of the females will also produce sounds when they are in the proximity of a male. Or they are being attacked by something but it's nothing like the actual calling song or mating song of the males. The way things that you see are actually wing covers and they are modified for sound production. A dark area has a file and the wing cover underneath of it has a scraper and right up here at the front is kind of a bright green ridge. That's where the file is. The scraper is on the wing cover below it and it drags across that file and it sets into motion. These windows on both the upper and lower wing cover and that's what amplifies the sound so that it carries for incredible distances. When you think of the size of this thing. And if you look at this front leg on both front legs right before the joint is a

swelling and that's the ear that's what they used to hear the Earth Opterons branched off from a common ancestor. It's about three hundred sixty million years ago in the fossil record there appear to be files and scrapers. So if you're producing sounds you have to have a hearing organ as well so they must have developed sound and hearing very closely to one another. This is a Katy did. It's a short leg sheild there has that robust kind of linebacker look to it. It's one of the nastier looking of the wealth options around here. It looks like it could really bite but they typically don't. If you were if you were to catch it and hold it in such a way that it could pinch you it would. They spend the day in the leaf litter very slowly as it gets dark across up through the vegetation and start singing. You notice that the wing covers on this insect are

very small and yet it still produces quite a bit of noise. They can be heard along the roadsides just rattling away from the Golden rods of vegetation like that. Under cover of darkness crickets and katydids strike up their chorus all together. Only you know one bug in the big night requires uncommon skill still perseverance. Will's the one to answer the call. So I guess learning the insect sounds a lot like learning birdsong. It's just repetition repetition. One of the real keys is to listen to an insect singing approach

it slowly and carefully and actually see it sing. Capture it and identify it and then if you do that a couple times it really sinks in. You know this sound is the brass click on OK to enter common mode OK then whatever. Do I store and the things that are new. Yeah. There's always a challenge. I. Didn't take them out. One way. To slowly methodically tap a paddle forty two beautiful miles from Upper Marlboro to a groom Zion gathering together today to be's canoeists and kayakers are dropping in for day one of the first annual Patuxent sojourn. Their goal to

paddle their way south and east along this most famous Maryland gravel and finish it with the legendary Patuxent rite of passage. Bob Murphy's sojourn coordinator works with the Alliance for the Chesapeake guides and working on the. Organizing the south placer journey for 11 years now and it's been such an enormous success that we realize wait a second which I think has many tributaries that can support so germs. Let's move it down south let's move it into Maryland once again that would decide the Patuxent the natural choice. As part of the stewardship that we like to impart on so germs and also germs is the theme of this one was restoration habitat and to understand the continuum that a river is it's not just a body of water it's the adjacent lands of Jason habitats.

It's what's below the water it's everything it's a cultural history. Day one was interesting from my perspective for one thing is that we went from a non-title river to a tidal river and that's a really that's a neat change and it's always kind of a guessing game when you're looking at there are we entitled course I mean you know I just can't tell because of the winds or whatnot. So that was fine and the river starts to widen the landscape changes from getting to us for us to start getting a lot of marshes and you know the bird population changes during the sojourn. Candy smell will help coordinate several plantains. She works with the Academy of Natural Science. Lots of us pray. Basically a heron course redwing blackbirds things like that. Turtles they found out green Darner dragon fly we named him and it's like he was our mascot for the whole 10 years. Unfortunately you had met his demise but but but it was beautiful anyway.

It worked but I don't spend a week on the water before so this was a couple days but not a week and that's a long time to go without basic amenities but it really I think without with the absence of those amenities kind of draws you closer to your surroundings the people here where you made such good friends we really know each other very well. We'd stay up late you think you're with someone for being out an entire week. You think there's eight hours of sleep would be nice. Now you say a play guitar you know you talk about the day it's a fantastic experience. Yeah I know you're one of the oldest of the family three at Kings Landing park after a big race paddle the Sojourners have developed a routine and made friends. Creature comfort screening for attention shock jocks going on. The personalities are really emerging.

I think that's that's a cool car the only thing missing from this camping trip is really the service. I'm just thinking you might take a look at it. It's six hours. We've got three nights. Day five dawns clear and he won the King's Landing party. The first order of business is striking tents and loading them into the U-Haul. After breakfast it's time to drop in and head towards the talking points site of the Moran power plant and the next campsite. But first time out for a mouth harp lesson. They're everywhere. All right yeah yeah. Coordination takes time. And it can be exhausting but it's made easier by careful advance planning. We could have done this without the cooperation of all the facilities are staying and most of those were out of state park Thanks interstate park in King's Landing. We also say the chalk point the power plant very accommodating and they prepared everything for us so we knew where we're going to camp.

I was surprised I was in the store as I thought I believe I thought of the store every night about my bank day. Never knew that. Before. Getting out of the water will be easy but negotiating the stairs aisle is tricky. Why did I take that back. I don't know you. We'll. Just let. This one. Get it. Right. We have. Lunch at last. Then a group of Sojourners head down to the shoreline to plant aquatic grasses a

symbolic gesture they make several times during a weeklong paddle. That was a big event that was a lot of fun got out in the mud and planted those three grasses. And I'm you know how important the grasses are because they not only provide a habitat for young animals out there like the baby crabs and small fish and stuff but they also hold back the sedimentation and they agreed that in broadband world under water that's a good thing. Day seven the ceremonial paddle from Jack Spade to resign and begins Sojourners are itching to let off a little steam. It. Will be. A water fight done. They paddled a broom's Island. Where lovers of the Patuxent

are ready to join hands with former state senator Bernie thousand for an annual weighed in the dramatizes the current condition of the Patuxent river's waters. OK stretch it out. Everybody all right. That's your dollar. Are you ready. The Sojourners find themselves among friends both new and old who share a love of the Patuxent who are willing to join together. And carry on the dream. Of a better river. To. Her. It's an historic ship. Of famous Jesse Bass give Jack a

century old. He is an authentic Chesapeake Bay Waterman. Made his living dredging for oysters for more than 60 years. This is a rare opportunity. To sail into the bay to experience firsthand its rich history and abundant sea life. These kids hail from the Boys and Girls Club of Annapolis Maryland and they're ready for a day of discovery. Every year the Chesapeake Bay Foundation leads dozens of such environmental education trips to the bay and the rivers and streams of the bay's vast watershed save the day in the brazen trouble. Yeah there is a problem with the bay. OK so the theme of the great Highfield is manager of the Skipjack program for CBF.

You can read about the day you can look at pictures about the bay. But actually being on the bay and doing things hand-on are so in part because it's lasting. People remember these trips for the rest of their lives. OK. All the streams and rivers and up in the bay. Whatever your first activity you usually do with her disappearance is to show him some maps and charts. We like to try to build a connection with the raid off of how they are wherever they are in the watershed are connected to the bay. But you're in the bay one of the biggest problems in the day to day. They are set amid what is dirt come from. Where you see a lot of dirt. Yeah I don't know how does that dirt on land get into the water. It's called erosion. All the activities that we do on our field trip are designed really to reinforce our main theme which is to save the day. That's a huge problem. End of it.

Excellent. Sampling the bays diversity of the bay can be saved and is worth saving. Right it was a lot by pulling the trawl net. We take a random sample of the different types of fish and critters that are in the bay and the stress of the point of biodiversity. We also want to build an appreciation for the bit they might see the bait differently as they come in. Maybe it's worth saving to them. Yes. I know. That yes a very good look at that goal to let you have as captain of the Skipjack that it would. Be for. The best part of my job I think it is probably having the kids on the boat. That's why I work on that everybody that I do I can work on all different kinds of boats and I just want to be a Captain much point or modes out there. Like I grew

up spending summers on the bay and I learn about the bay on Chapman and I love being able to watch the lightbulb go on over to his home. We take a group out we definitely have a message that we try to get across about about the state of the bay and and what the baby needs from us. If nothing else I really hope that having him out plants a seed. Hopefully for more more experiences I don't think that's why I do what I did I just read what kind of crabs are there. Raising said his hands on history. The Skipjack is a traditional old sailing boat that used to dredge wasters So when we take our participants out we have them actually work the boat so they are in charge of raising the sails of both the mains on that ship sail to actually put them to work and dredge.

Hey. This is a great oyster catchin boat it was designed in the bay to catch or serves in IRL our first mate has been catching oysters for over 60 years. He worked on this boat when it was a work boat. This is called a girlie. Parses cotton Colwell like I say all cool. That's an officer in the rough job. And a hard job. OK let's. First Mate IRL see white. Kids. First. Come first and I'm going to teach them. And that's what's going to help bring him. Through. They can do it. And if you look at it closely. Dredging oysters in the traditional way gives a taste of the importance of oysters to the health history culture and economy of the Chesapeake Bay. With North America's largest estuary.

Evelyn Parker is Camp Director for the Annapolis Boys and Girls Club. She sees this trip as personal exploration and community outreach. What color is a trap. It's very interesting because I've never actually been on the way we work with the water and a lot of the kids it was the first time then it's a good learning experience for all of us. So we're looking forward to taking it back to the community. I shall let them know what we learned about today told them that once caught seven different things good there's a lot of different type of fish over there so that means that area over there can support many different types of fish. So that's a great habitat. We're going to oh. Yeah this is a scam Jack Marshall was delighted by the bay's diversity.

I don't know that the Chesapeake Bay has felt much like I want to just you know do something and tell this to the start of that. NEARY. Yeah. Because that and then they turn into officers. It was the base critters that sparked Alicia's imagination. Now they're not actually. My favorite part is doing. We got attacked. Oh. Go right. There's no you wouldn't that leave x. And in a wooden home they can't breathe. And. They don't have oh my I actually do you know what if they go I'll die out. Like many people. William was familiar with CBS motto save the bag. But he'd never known exactly what to do it always wanted to know what I did the ways that I can help prevent. Their baby and waste by recycling. And also by. Telling other people about

what my experience was on this trip so it will really get to them and they wouldn't. Be as much as me. I for one concept I want our participants to know as they leave our boat is just how wonderful the Chesapeake Bay is and what a great resource it is for the entire watershed and hopefully they'll think the space we're saving. Drop in to our website at w w w dot o r g

to send us your comments and suggestions. No. This program has been made possible by the members of NPT. Thank you for your generous support.