- Hello, and welcome to another virtual field trip with Ohio Learns 360.

I'm Joshua York, a naturalist for Five Rivers MetroParks here in southwest Ohio.

And today, you can watch on your screen as we explore the natural wonder of Ohio's many beautiful forests.

And hopefully, you'll be inspired to explore nature in person someplace near your home.

You know, stepping into a forest can truly transport you into an adventure of discovery.

Each forest is unique with its own ecosystems, plant life, and animals.

Today, you are invited to come along as we prepare for a hike, identify a few plants to avoid, take a look at what kind of wildlife might be hiding under a log, explore a creek that flows through the forest, identify tracks on that forest floor and some of the animals that might have made them, and even go on a hike with a turtle.

Yep, you heard me right.

We're gonna go hike with a turtle.

So if you're ready, let's start this adventure.

Come on.

- I'm here with my friend, Joshua, and we are going on a nature hike to explore this beautiful forest.

And this forest is home to so many different creatures and plants.

Also, getting outside and exploring nature can make you feel better, can make you healthier, and even make you smarter.

When you're out exploring, some forests may have really big trees, so you wanna pay attention to what's around you and make sure you know where you are.

- Wherever you choose to go hiking, make sure a grownup knows where you're going.

It's always a good idea to carry a water bottle, maybe even a snack too, because even if you're not going too far, you can stay outside longer.

Other things that I like to carry with me sometimes if I have 'em are binoculars, maybe even a little jar so that I can catch a creature and look at it and then let it go.

But then I always carry some paper or my nature journal with me so that I can record some of the things that I see, but then also draw and write poems.

Let's go hike.

Well, here in Five Rivers MetroParks in Dayton, Ohio, there isn't really a lot of creatures and plants that we need to be worried about that will hurt us.

But just a few, one of them is stinging nettle.

And right here we have, it's really a cool plant, has really neat flowers on it.

But then if you look closely at its stem, it has lots of little stinging hairs.

And if you brush against them, especially if you're wearing shorts, those little stinging hairs will get into your legs and will sting a little bit.

So it's not gonna hurt you in the long term, but it can make you itch later.

- Now, poison ivy might be another plant that you've heard about to be careful around.

If touch this plant, it could give you a rash and make you itchy.

A lot of people remember what this plant looks like by saying leaves of three, let it be.

But actually in the forest, there are so many plants to explore that have three leaves that are not poison ivy.

So one of the best ways to tell if you're looking at poison ivy is to look at how the leaves are coming off of the main stem.

Now, unlike a lot of plants that have three leaves that come out opposite from one another, poison ivy actually comes out alternate from one another.

So if you see that, you know that you probably are looking at poison ivy.

Now, a lot of people might not like poison ivy because of the fact that it can make them itchy, but the reason I really like poison ivy is because in the winter the birds are able to eat berries that this plant makes when they don't have a lot of food.

Earlier you guys saw how cool it can be to explore a log, and one of my favorite things to do when I'm out in the woods is to flip over logs and see if I can find any creatures living underneath.

So I'm gonna go ahead and flip over this log and see if we can find anything.

Oh, I don't see anything big under here.

I see a couple little bugs, but why don't we try this log over here and see if we find anything.

Hm.

Oh, wow.

Look, there's a salamander.

Now I'm going to really quick get my hands wet before I touch the salamander so I don't accidentally wipe off some of his protective slime.

So I wanna make sure my hands are nice and wet.

And now we can take a look at this salamander.

Look at this guy.

This is a Jefferson mole salamander.

And look at those long toes that he has and that beautiful little bit of blue on him.

Now, he might seem a little bit bigger than some salamanders that you're used to seeing, maybe when you're out exploring the creek, that's because he's a mole salamander and they actually live most of their lives in the leaf litter and in the soil.

So being under a log is a perfect place for him to spend time.

So now we're gonna go ahead and return this salamander back to the forest.

Now, before we do that, we wanna flip over the log where we found him very gently in case there's any small creatures we didn't see.

So we're gonna go ahead and put that back, and then we'll let our salamander go right next to it so we don't accidentally squish him, but he can still go underneath if he wants.

Bye, salamander.

Joshua, what bird is that?

- [Joshua] Oh, wow.

Oh, wow.

Good find, Erin.

Wow, that is a black-throated green warbler.

So cool.

Just check that guy out.

And, oh, there's a bay-breasted warbler.

Wow.

You don't see those two often.

- [Erin] Is that a black-throated blue?

- Oh, yes it is.

Wow.

Oh, and a prothonotary, prothonotary warbler.

Check that out.

Ooh, and check out this redstart, an American redstart, a lot of people call it.

- [Erin] Oh, that's my favorite, a magnolia warbler.

- Wow.

You know, this is a really good spot.

- It really is.

- You know, it's very typical in birding that you'll be hiking around and not see a bird for a little while, and then you'll see a bunch of different species all traveling together.

Safety in numbers.

That is cool.

Erin, check this out.

Wow.

So whenever you get to a really cool animal that's just kind of out in nature doing its thing, we have to keep in mind that these animals are typically really scared of us.

And an animal that is scared of us, that has teeth can bite us, but just because they want to get us away.

So we really should not pick up this animal and just kind of let it control the experience.

But let's get a little closer and see what we can find.

This is just so cool that we saw this today.

This is a common snake that we find out in the woods in Ohio, but we don't get to see them all too often.

This is a rat snake, and he's got a white chin.

If I was to pick him up, you'd see like a checkerboard pattern all the way down his belly.

But look at that really, really, really neat.

Sometimes when you get close to a snake, they will stick out their tongue and they're not trying to make fun of you, they're just smelling you.

They're just kind of exploring and trying to figure out who we are, just like we're exploring it.

Really neat.

We're going to let it go and return back to the forest.

- [Erin] Enjoying your water break?

- Oh, yeah, this is a really good spot.

It's got my nice big shady oak right here.

- [Erin] So you do know you're sitting next to poop, right?

- What?

Ooh.

Wow.

You know, this isn't poop.

This is not poop.

This is an owl pellet.

Do you know what a pellets are?

- [Erin] No.

What are they?

- So owls when they eat their food, they can't like digest a whole mouse at once.

So they actually separate all the bones and the fur and the skulls, all that stuff, and then they puke out and then the rest of this stuff goes in their tummy, but they get rid of this stuff.

And here's another one.

This is really neat.

This means that an owl has been sitting way up here in the top of this tree puking, and we just found it.

Let's go ahead and dissect it and see what they ate.

- [Erin] All right.

- All right.

All right, we just used our nature journal as kind of a nature exploration table and dissected one of our owl pellets kind of quickly.

If we had the right tools, we were gonna bring this inside and clean up these things.

But this is just incredible.

Look at this.

Look at this little bone.

It's just like so cute.

- [Erin] Wow.

Look how small that is.

- Yeah, I wonder if it was a part of a leg of a mouse, because look at this.

This is a skull.

Check that out.

This is where its eyes used to be.

- [Erin] Wow.

- And its front teeth.

And then I also saw this right down here.

This is the lower jaw, so this kind of fit together kind of like this.

And so it would open up its mouth and grind the seeds and things that they like to eat.

Rah, rah, rah, rah, rah.

Pretty cool.

- [Erin] There's so many things in just that one little owl pellet.

- You know, I'm interested, I'm gonna take this owl pellet home so that I can dissect it with some water and kind of explore what can be inside it.

But here, I'm gonna let all of this stuff kind of return back to nature.

And really a best way to do that is to kind of move the leaf litter around.

And I'm just gonna go ahead and pour it right in here and then cover it with leaves.

And so nature is going to go ahead and decompose that and turn it back to dirt.

And maybe next year when I'm hiking by a little plant will be growing here and using some of these little mouse bits.

Well, breaks over.

- All right, let's go see what else we can find.

A lot of times we are out exploring the forest during the day, but there's a whole bunch of creatures that come out at night during the forest that we might not get to see if we're only going out during the day.

So one of the best ways to see it, what kind of animals are out in our forest, is to look for tracks.

And a great place to look is in mud like what's right behind me here.

This mud is perfect for recording our animal tracks.

Look at these tracks in the mud here.

And there's even some bigger ones that look the same over here.

I think this is a white-tailed deer like the skull that we saw earlier.

And that would make sense, they're pretty common here in Ohio.

And it looks like this deer was traveling this way because its toes are pointing that way.

And not too far away, here's a raccoon track.

Look at the long fingers.

They kind of look like our hand print.

And over here we have a coyote track.

Coyotes are also fairly common in Ohio, but they actually came here from the west.

Look at this track as compared to our raccoon track.

It looks kind of different.

That's because our coyotes have toe pads that makes different markings in the dirt.

- [Joshua] Well, thanks for sharing those tracks with me, Erin.

- You're welcome.

- [Joshua] So where are we heading now?

- I don't know.

Let's see what's around this corner.

- Sounds good.

Oh, this looks different.

- Wow.

Look at the trees.

They are different.

- Look at how tall they are.

You know what these are?

These are pine trees.

And you know what's under pine trees?

- [Both] Pine cones.

- Oh, here's one.

Wow.

This came from the top of the pine tree.

And you know, this is the girl part of the tree.

So it gets the pollen from the boy part, and then it continues to grow and it creates this pine cone.

And so this is where her seeds are made.

And then in the springtime, when it starts to get warm, they kind of just open up and all of the seeds fall out.

But it's just really super cool looking.

You know what, I'm gonna save this for later.

(birds chirping) I am really glad we came out here today.

- [Erin] Me too.

It really makes me feel good spending time out here.

- It's just so peaceful.

Well, thanks, Erin, that was a lot of fun.

- It really was.

And you know, we got to see so many amazing things out here on the trails, and I bet all of you have local forests that you can explore as well.

Just make sure you check with a parent first.

- And after you're done exploring, if you can remember, like we were having our fingers in all that owl puke and on creatures and stuff, it's always good to wash your hands when you're done exploring, especially before you eat.

But also another thing that I'd like for you to try is to just get out in a forest and sit and be still, and just listen to all of the sounds.

Feel the wind on your face.

Get out that nature journal and just kind of put down on paper what comes to you because amazing things happen when you're in a peaceful forest.

- Yeah.

So get out and explore.

And who knows, maybe we'll meet you out on the trail.

Bye.

- Take care.

- I'm here with my long, scaly friend, JJ.

He's a gray rat snake, and he's about eight years old and six feet long.

That's longer than I am tall.

Can you believe that we have some things in common with JJ?

He's got eyes just like we do that he uses to see.

He's got a nose that he uses to breathe, but he actually uses something else to smell.

He uses his tongue.

So when JJ sticks his tongue out, he's using it to smell and it has two different points, which means he can smell in two different directions at the same time.

This helps him find his food and pray, and he can decide which way to go with which way he smells his food.

Something else we have in common is that we both have skin, but since JJ is a reptile, he has scales that cover his entire body.

And when he gets bigger, his scales get really tight and he needs to crawl out of them.

So he might find a rock and rub his nose on the rock until it splits and he'll crawl all the way out of his old scales.

And underneath will be brand new shiny scales.

Something that's different about JJ and us is that JJ's a reptile, so he's cold-blooded.

We, as humans are warm-blooded, which means that no matter what's going on outside, our blood stays warm.

But JJ needs outside sources to keep himself warm.

So you can see him wrapping around my arm and he's using my body heat to keep himself warm.

Out in the wild, they might sunbathe on a warm rock, or he could use his heat lamps in his enclosure.

So next time you're out hiking with your family, maybe keep an eye out for some of these beautiful creatures hanging out on a rock or maybe hanging out of a tree.

But make sure to give them space and just use your eyes to look.

Now let's see what friends Mary Beth has for us to meet.

It's gonna be turtle-ly awesome.

- We also have a box turtle.

His name is Michelangelo.

Hi, Mike.

How are you doing?

He likes strawberries and tomatoes from our garden, and he also likes to walk in the woods.

So what do you think, Mike?

Would you like to take a walk today?

Awesome.

Let's join him for a walk.

I think it would be a great idea to put this GoPro on Michelangelo, and then that way we can see the forest the way that he does.

Let's go.

(upbeat music) Wow.

Michelangelo.

It was really cool to see the forest through your eyes.

Our friends at Twin Valley Welcome Center have another animal they want to show us.

Back to you, guys.

- Thanks, guys.

Those are some really cool turtles.

For this next wild animal ambassador, we need some special tools, like a good glove and a leash.

Now this is Ruby and she's been with us since 1999, so she's at least 25 years old.

And in Ohio, if I see a big bird that has a wonderful belly band in the front, and look at her beautiful tail feathers, I know it's a red-tailed hawk.

Hey, Ruby, let's go talk to our friends now.

You wanna step up?

There we go.

There we go.

These are called jesses on her feet.

And we just put a little leash on those.

Just in case she would happen to get away from us outside, we could pick her right back up and keep her safe.

Now, when people see Ruby, they often ask me, "Why are you holding this wild bird inside of a cage?

"And why do you keep her on a leash?"

And that's because when she first came, she was injured.

And you can see from her wing that one is a little shorter.

So if we let her go, she would not be able to get her own food and then she would get really, really hungry and she would just starve and die.

So we asked the government if we could have her here to help us teach, and they said, "Yes."

We had to ask the federal government and the state of Ohio, both.

Now, they want us to help people understand that birds like this hawk, when they fly out and eat like a snake, or they might eat a rabbit or squirrel, or they eat a lot of mice, that that's not because they're bad, that's just the kind of bird they are and that's what they eat for food.

So it's okay that they are out there hunting and it actually helps some of the other animals when they do eat them because it keeps their population in balance.

Now, one thing we do need to remember about Ruby is that she is not a pet.

She is a wild animal still, and we need to keep a very good respect with her.

So we're just gonna set her back down here.

Ruby and all of our other wild animal ambassadors really help Five Rivers MetroParks deliver a key message to the public.

You see, we take care of 16,000 acres of land, almost all of it, 90% is managed in natural states, so it's beautiful woodlands, riparian zones along the rivers, prairies, wetlands, and in that land a lot of wild animals and plants live and that's great, but it isn't enough land because animals don't stay in parks.

They have wings.

Some of them go on long journeys.

And so if you can do things around your home, maybe plant oak trees or other native plants for wildlife, when they leave parks and natural areas, they have a place they can still get their food and their shelter and their water.

And that way they'll be nice and healthy and they can come back to the parks.

And they also are close to you.

Now, if you see a wild animal in our park, maybe there's a snake on the ground or a turtle, we do ask that you be respectful to them.

It would be great if you could watch 'em.

It's not very nice to throw a stick or a rock at 'em, so just let them be and watch 'em.

But if you pick up an animal, just like Ruby sometimes picks up a mouse in order to eat it, that animal might think you're trying to hurt it.

And so if you try to pick up a snake, it might bite you, not because it's mean, but because it's scared.

So just give them a little extra room.

Don't try to pick 'em up, enjoy them.

And then you can know that there's lots of good places around you where animals are having wonderful lives.

Now, since Ruby lives here with us, she can't hunt by herself.

We brought her her dinner.

Thank you so much, Ruby.

- I'm here with my friend, Joshua, and we are out exploring the creek.

It's one of our favorite things to do in the summer, and it's perfect because it is so cool and refreshing on those warm summer days.

Also, there's so much for us to discover and play within this creek.

Now, an important thing is, is I wouldn't wanna get in this creek if I couldn't see my feet or if the water was running really fast.

But lucky for us today, it is calm and clear, perfect for exploring.

So let's go see what we can find.

- Now when you first get into your neighborhood creek, you might not see a lot of creatures, but that's just because they're really good at hiding.

There are animals all around us, and the best way to go looking for them is to actually get in the water.

Now, what I like to have on my feet are not sandals or my bare feet because I don't want to get hurt.

The best thing is just a pair of old tennis shoes, like what I got here.

Oh, look at that, all the water coming out of it.

And I also like to take a net and maybe a little container, but the best tool that you have available is your hands.

You really don't need a lot except for maybe some foot protection, a little bit of enthusiasm and a creek to go exploring.

- Whatever you decide to bring to the creek, make sure that you keep it with you and try not to drop it in the creek or this happens.

- Ah!

- What did you find?

- Oh.

Well, Erin, I just caught an incredibly beautiful fish.

You know, right here in Dayton, Metro Parks, in our streams, we have so many fish that just put tropical fish to shame.

And this is one of them.

Just check out it's beautiful colors, all the colors of the rainbow.

You got red, orange, blue, green, yellow.

And in fact, if you were a researcher first exploring this land in these creeks and found this fish, you might give it the name Rainbow Darter.

It is beautiful.

And just look at those big pectoral fins, those side fins that it has right below its eye.

They really need those to move around in this really fast flowing water.

And when you find these guys, there are a real good indicator, they tell us that this creek is really clean because they can only live in clean water.

Well, we're gonna go ahead and let this guy go so it can live out its days.

Bye-bye a little fish.

- A great place to look for creatures in the creek is underneath rocks.

A lot of creatures use rocks as their home and they live under there.

But also creatures can use them as a great hiding place.

So I'm gonna go ahead and take a look under this rock and see what we can find.

But we're gonna be careful and flip this rock towards us in case there's any creatures under there that we might startle.

So let's go ahead and take a look and see what we can find.

Oh, look, I see a crawdad down here.

Now I've got my crawdad, but before I come show it to you a little bit better, I wanna be very careful in putting this rock back down because there may be some creatures under here still that I can't see, and I don't wanna accidentally squish them.

So I'm gonna put this back very gently.

Now, one of the first things that you're probably noticing about this crawdad, and some people call them crayfish, are his pinchers.

So you can see those large pinchers that he has, and they can seem a little bit scary at first, but they're actually really important for this crawdad.

They help him hold onto rocks and catch and eat his food.

So it's almost like he's swimming around with his own fork and knife ready to eat all the time.

Now we're gonna go ahead and let this guy go for now.

So I'm gonna go back to the rock where we found him, and we are gonna just very carefully put him near this rock.

So he has an option to go underneath if he wants, but we're not gonna accidentally squish him either.

So goodbye little crawdad.

- [Joshua] Oh, wow.

- What'd you find?

- I found a spider.

- Woo.

- It's pretty cool.

- Wow.

- Look at this guy, how he's just moving around on my hand.

He's not gonna hurt me.

But many people, including my own mom and dad, when they see spiders, they wanna squish 'em.

They're really scared of spiders.

But look at this guy, he's not hurting me.

And what's really fun is just the different ways that spiders catch their prey.

Now, many spiders around your home probably build webs to catch their food, but this guy is kind of like a cheetah.

He's called a wolf spider, and he runs after his prey and chases it down and gobbles 'em up.

And thankfully, there are a number of these guys out here because they eat a lot of bugs that eat us.

So I really love these spiders because they go around and they eat the things that might try to get us.

So I'm gonna let Mr. Spider go right here.

- Oh, wow.

- Well, what did you find, Erin?

- I just found a couple of my favorite creatures.

Now, a lot of people might see these and think that they're a snake or a lizard, but they are actually salamanders and they are so cool.

Can you get a look at those beady eyes and little toes that they have?

They are so neat.

And these guys, you'll often find along the edges of the creek in the rocks, but sometimes you can actually find them in the creek as well.

And those are typically the babies.

And they will have gills right along the side of their head, and that's how you can tell.

But if you get a salamander and to get a closer look at it, you wanna be really careful because just like you and me, they have bones and you wouldn't want to accidentally hurt them.

Also, you wanna make sure that your hands are wet so you don't accidentally wipe off some of their protective slime.

Joshua, what if this creek smelled?

Would you wanna play in it then?

- No, probably not, Erin, because if it smelled it's probably polluted and then it might hurt me.

And then also, it probably wouldn't have the beautiful creatures like the rainbow darters and the salamanders and other things that we caught because they just can't live in polluted water.

- Yeah, and you know, I bet that these creatures that we found probably wouldn't like that water either.

These are macroinvertebrates and these little insects can be found on the underside of rocks.

And what's really cool about them is that they have an incredible story to tell because they can help us test and understand how clean the water is.

Just how you go to the doctor for checkups, we can also give our streams checkups to see how healthy they are and the types of macroinvertebrates that we find, like what we have here, can actually help us determine that.

Some macroinvertebrates need really clean water in order to survive, while others like mosquitoes can live in less clean water.

- Well, that about wraps up our virtual field trip today.

Thank you for joining me.

You know, spending time out in the forest can help us feel more connected with the natural world, the fresh air, the sound of the birds singing, the rustling of the leaves, the scent of the soil and wildflowers beneath us, the sound of the trickling creek.

It can all create a peaceful and rejuvenating connection with the earth.

It does for me, and I bet it will for you too.

So I hope this virtual field trip has inspired you to explore the forest in your neck of the woods.

If you're not quite sure where to find a nature spot, you can always check this link online for wildlife areas, national parks and state parks all over Ohio.

There are many places to explore.

For now, I'm Joshua York with Five Rivers MetroParks, and I'll see you out on the trails.

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