Day 5: Adventures around the 'Gunk

Tonight I went for a walk around the large pond on the SUNY New Paltz campus, know locally as 'The Gunk', with a my student Chris 'Toph' Gahn. The pond is named in honor of the mountain range near campus called the 'Gunks, which is short for Shawangunks. Toph and I both had cameras and I brought along my dip net. We must have looked quite the pair walking across campus at 10:45pm.

When we got to the pond it wasn't more than 2 minutes that we found the first of 5 large Bull

Frogs. These frogs ranged from quite large to medium sized. We found them all the way around the pond and it seems this is the most common amphibian in the 'Gunk. While we were walking around the pond we noticed a large swimming animal in the pond and tracked it to a pile of rocks under some bushes. This animal turned out to be a large muskrat and we didn't see it again tonight. Finally, there were a number of ducks on the pond at different times while we were there. We continued down south past the pond and walked along towards the alumni soccer fields and followed an outlet stream from another small pond. Along this stream we found what I believe is a type of Green Frog, though I may be wrong, but this is my best bet.

After we walked around the soccer field looking in the ditch around the perimeter, we walked

back over towards the Wooster Science Building. When we arrived at my car parked outside of the building, we stopped for a while and chatted a bit. After we had been there a few minutes I spotted a large insect flying around a light pole 30 yards or so away. Toph and I walked over and just then the insect hit the pole and flew down to the ground. At this point we both took a number of good pictures and when I got back I identified it as a Giant Water Bug. This is one of the biggest 'bugs' in the US and is a member of the Order Hemiptera. It is locally known in some places as a 'Toe Biter' and from some stuff on the 'net I guess it can deliver a rather painful bite. A fun night and nice to know what lives in the large pond on campus. As a final note, it was great to have Toph along for the walk tonight and people are welcome to come along any time, just let me know.