Moccassin Lake Park was a great first start to our outdoor lab. The weather was nice,  and the sun was shining but luckily there are many trees that offered shade from the heat as some of us worked to pull weeds and others upgraded the avian habitats.

Some of the weeds we pulled were Ceasar weed and  the Air Potato. Both of these species are invasive and taking over Moccassin Lake. This causes a problem because the leaves are so abundant, theu shade the whole ground floor preventing anything else to get sunlight to grow.

As we walked on our nature trail there were several plant marked along the way. I almost walked passed Poinson Ivy without even noticing; but what I did notice was that the plant is very low to the ground, Ibwonder why? Another plant I observed,was Pokeberry. I almost thought it could have been a joke when I was looking up native plants online, but Pokeberry is real and has pretty berries that are colored a red and purple.

The boardwalk was a peaceful journey to the actual lake itself. The lake is hiding in a circle of trees with no obvious water flowing into it. This leads me to believe it has to be fed by an underwater unseen spring. On the way back, I found some small creatures that have made this lake their home.

I was almost convinced this was a black widow, but I was corrected by the Professor. This is a garden spider thst simply looks like its poisonous counterpart.