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Sunday, October 20, 2013

Watershed Festival 2013

Yesterday, we spent most of the day assisting at a local event, the 2013 Watershed Festival, a free event featuring hands-on activities for children and adults. Children enjoyed visiting the various exhibits and collecting tokens that were later exchanged for prizes.

A watershed describes an area of land that contains a common set of streams and rivers that all drain into a single larger body of water, such as a larger river, a lake or an ocean. Not only does water run into the streams and rivers from the surface of a watershed, but water also filters through the soil, and some of this water eventually drains into the same streams and rivers. These two processes are called surface runoff and infiltration.
Registration
Grenville (Pat) is involved in several local environmental and naturalists groups, including the sponsor of this event, the Eastern Shore Soil & Water Conservation District\Environmental Education Council. He and another volunteer manned the registration table shown above.
Watershed fest 1
Exhibitors included the Virginia Department of Game & Inland Fisheries, Chesapeake Bay Foundation, Eastern Shore National Wildlife Refuge, Citizens for a Better Eastern Shore, Kiptopeke State Park, Eastern Shore Master Naturalists, Eastern Shore Agriculture Research & Extension Center, and Coastal Zone Management; all featured interactive displays focused on the treasures found throughout the Chesapeake Bay and the Eastern Shore.
Watershed fest3
Several exhibits dressed in pirate gear in keeping with the event's "treasures" theme.
Pirate gear
One of the most popular exhibits was the Madagascar cockroach (Gromphadorhina portentosa), called the hissing cockroach because of the unique sounds it makes when they forcing air through the respiratory openings (spiracles) found on each segment of their abdomen. Originating from the island of Madagascar off the African mainland, it's one of the largest species of cockroach, reaching 2 to 3 inches at maturity and is found in rotting logs. Unlike most cockroaches, they are wingless and feed primarily on vegetable material. Their lifespan in captivity can exceed 5 years.
Madagasgar cockroach
Face painting was another popular exhibit with lots of "Spiderman" painted faces, camouflage ones, and some cute kitties too.
Painted faces
Despite the drizzle and light rain that came and went during most of the late morning into early afternoon, more than 250 people attended the event.
As you can see, we are getting used to this new format which lets the photos be a larger size. However, when posts (like this one) are created using the MarsEdit blog editor (Mac only), they cannot be clicked on to enlarge. It's just a quirk of this blog program — not your computer.
Hope you all had a good weekend, however and wherever it was spent.

17 comments:

Anonymous said...

That was not rain!!!!! It was "A dynamic demonstration of how a watershed operates". Thats my story and i'm sticking to it.
Grenville

grammie g said...

Hi B... I think that above comment is spam lol!!

What a great fun, and learning day for the kids and adults!!

Did pirates have spotted umbrellas??

The blog is look good!!

Grace

Kay G. said...

Oh, that cockroach...it's still a cockroach, I don't want it anywhere near me!!

Out on the prairie said...

Nice to have the groups to help with so many diversified areas around you.

Our photos said...

Lovely are the photos!
Greetings, RW & SK

Elaine said...

Looks like it was a fun event! Bet all the little boys loved that cockroach, and probably a few bigger boys too. As for me, no way would I let that thing crawl on me!

jp@A Green Ridge said...

You had me until COCKROACH!!!!!...:)JP

MadSnapper said...

my favorite thing there is the costumes, and that cockroach is scary, they had one in a petting zoo once, but NOT me was the answer..looks like the kids were enthralled with all the things they had to show...

Connie said...

Sounds like a fun event! The cockroach would give me the willies! Cute pictures of the painted faces. :)

Doris said...

Looks like a fun day in spite of the rain....oops, it wasn't rain!

Anvilcloud said...

That time again. And the seasons they go round and round.

Montanagirl said...

Ha - a fun event for all! No cockroaches for me either! But I bet the boys enjoyed him. The painted faces are cute.

Latane Barton said...

Looks like a fun day for everyone. All but that cockroach... I run from those things. Hugs, Latane

Anonymous said...

I love events like that :-)

That cockroach is interesting but I would ever, never let it walk on me :-) I've got rid of most of my phobias but I still have the one towards big insects walking on me :-) :-) :-) I like them behind glass though :-)

Have a great day!
Christer.

possum said...

I cam handle most bugs, but I draw the line at roaches, hissing or otherwise.
Glad you didn't drown... was the rain bad? It was hit and miss here for a total of .08.

L. D. said...

There were a lot of different experiences for the kids. It looked like a fun day.

Unknown said...

Looks like a grand gathering....sans the cockroach...yuk and yuk again. Dreadful lifespan for the creature too.