Master Naturalist Class Day 9

(For pictures, click HERE)

Who or What am I?

Welcome everyone for today’s show on What or Who am I? I’m Olivia Owl, your host of today’s show. First I will let the mystery guests introduce themselves and then at the end, you will have a chance to guess who or what they are. I want you to write down who or what they are and then I will give you the answers at the end to see how well you did. Let the game begin!

Mystery Guest 1: I was first found in 1968 at Sassafras Mountain. A man from Harvard called Dennis Chastain and asked him to bring him to that area to find me. My species is only found in 3 places in North America, here, Savannah area and the panhandle of Florida. My relatives were here about 400 million years ago. Nearly identical species were found in West Africa. This means we were here when Pangaea existed.

Mystery Guest 2: I am formed on the twigs of a young white oak. I am red and round shaped. I secrete a honeydew substance that attracts insects such as wasps, bees and flies.

Mystery Guest 3: You can see evidence that I was here because I rooted around the dirt. It looks like a mini bulldozer has been through here. I am looking for insects, mushrooms, just about anything I can find.

  Mystery Guest 4: I am small and slender and vary from appearing bright yellow to a rusty orange color. There are two black stripes that run from my head down my body and well onto the tail. My tail is fairly long, comprising about half my total length. I am rarely seen in the summer, but may be found along the banks of free-flowing creeks and streams during other times of the year.

Mystery Guest 5: I am a tree that is usually found at old home sites. They used me for food and for dye. My wood is very hard like hickory and many times it was used for handles on things.

Mystery Guest 6: I am a waterfall located in the Laurel Fork Heritage Preserve and I was named after a lady who was the executive secretary of the Foothills Trail Conference for a very long time.

Mystery Guest 7: I am a bird that was seen at the North Carolina overlook on the way to the lunch spot. I am the national bird and symbol for the United States of America. Once I was on the endangered and then threatened species list but was removed from the List of Endangered and Threatened Wildlife in the lower 48 States on June 28, 2007.

Mystery Guest 8: I am something that falls off a tree and that animals love to eat. I am not shiny like the ones that come off the Chestnut Oak and I don’t have as much tannin as the ones that come off of Red Oak trees.

Mystery Guest 9: I am a beautiful area that people can sit and have lunch and overlook Lake Jocassee and the mountains. There is a nice monument honoring Dr. James Timmerman, Director of DNR there.

Mystery Guest 10: I am the place that the water was much lower on one side than the other. When the Upstate Master Naturalists stood here, they could see the Bad Creek Dam from here. It was really windy and the water was rough that day. Usually this is not open to the public but they had special permission to be here on that day.

Mystery Guest 11: I am the bonus mystery guest! This wasn’t discussed in class but I think I’m pretty interesting. I am a fort constructed in 1753 in what is now known as Pickens, SC. I was submerged by Lake Keowee after the completion of the Keowee Dam in 1971.

Okay now. I hope everyone wrote their answers down. Does anyone need any repeated? Did you have a hard time? Now, let’s look at the answers how you did. Here are the answers in order:

1. Mite harvestman

2. Bullet gall

3. Wild pig

4. Southern Two Lined Salamander

5. Black walnut

6. Virginia Hawkins Falls

7. Bald Eagle

8. White Oak Acorn

9. Jumping Off Rock

10. Jocassee Dam

11. Fort Prince George

How’d you do? Well, we have come to the end of our show. Hope you enjoyed it! Please come back again and meet some new mystery guests!

(Mysteries are wonderful for classrooms. Students always like to solve a mystery. If you have pictures or items they can handle, it will make the experience even richer. I remember having a mystery box in elementary school where we stuck our hand in the hole and felt something. Then we identified it by how it felt. You might find some items in nature to do the same thing. Do you do something like this? If so, please share your stories.)

Posted on the Successful Teaching Blog by loonyhiker (successfulteaching at gmail dot com).

Original Pictures by Pat Hensley