Water and Animal Surveying of Deer Creek Lake and Reservoirs

Bryan BowlingWater and Animal Surveying of Deer Creek Watershed

The Dam

The Lake

Map and Site LocationsI tested 5 locations for water samples and animal surveysSamples were taken from the Dam, Lake, Dry Run, Stone Run, and Opossum Run.

Whats being measured in the water?TurbidityFlowMirkyness of the water samples

m/sTested by placing apple in water and measuring how long it takes to go 2 meters. Then divide that time in half.

6Whats being measured in the water?pHUsed litmus paper to test the pH of water samples collected.Deer Creek Dam and Lake Water SamplesDamLake

Dry and Stone RunDry Run SampleStone Run Sample

Opossum RunOpossum Run Sample

Results of Water AnalysisDeer Creek WatershedTurbidity (NTU) Flow (m/s) pHLake150.216.5Dam91.517Opossum Run51.756.8Stone Run100.776.8Dry Run90.987Water conclusionOverall, Deer Creek watershed continues to increase in terms of healthiness.Water is clear enough with most containments removed it would be excellent drinking water.In terms of flow the streams were moving at an exceptionally well pace, which could be do to the recent rain storms that hit.pH was acidic in a few spots, which is fine due to some parts of the watershed being naturally acidic.

The good water quality that I found in the Deer Creek watershed helps explain why the blue-breasted darters are making a comebackTheyre known to be associated with good water qualityUnfortunately I did not see any in my locations but doesn mean theyre not there.

Deer Creek Animal SurveyThis was done in the five spots where I took water samples: Lake, Dam, Opossum Run, Stone Run, and Dry RunThe areas were monitored on average for an 1.5-2 hours each looking for all species.Results are horrible!!!Results would improve though if I had another month to do the surveys, when animal life starts picking up.Survey ResultsLakeDamSpeciesCommon nameCountCorvus brachyrhynchosAmerican Crow6Meleagris gallopavoWild Turkey2Turdus migratoriusAmerican Robin14Cathartes auraTurkey Vulture4Agelaius phoeniceusRed-Winged Blackbird8Cyanocitta cristataBlue Jay1Cardinalis cardinalisNorthern Cardinal6Tamias striatusEastern Chipmunk3Mus musculusHouse Mouse1Mustela visonMink3Procyon lotorRaccoon2Tamiasciurus hudsonicusRed Squirrel10Mephitis mephitisStriped Skunk2Odocoileus virginianusWhite-Tailed Deer5Ictalurus punctatusChannel Catfish1Pomoxis annularisWhite Crappie3Sander vitreus x Sander canadenseSaugeye2SpeciesCommon nameCountCorvus brachyrhynchosAmerican Crow0Meleagris gallopavoWild Turkey0Turdus migratoriusAmerican Robin18Cathartes auraTurkey Vulture3Agelaius phoeniceusRed-Winged Blackbird6Cyanocitta cristataBlue Jay0Cardinalis cardinalisNorthern Cardinal2Tamias striatusEastern Chipmunk1Mus musculusHouse Mouse0Mustela visonMink0Procyon lotorRaccoon2Tamiasciurus hudsonicusRed Squirrel16Mephitis mephitisStriped Skunk0Odocoileus virginianusWhite-Tailed Deer0Ictalurus punctatusChannel Catfish0Pomoxis annularisWhite Crappie16Sander vitreus x Sander canadenseSaugeye26Dry RunStone RunSpeciesCommon nameCountCorvus brachyrhynchosAmerican Crow5Meleagris gallopavoWild Turkey0Turdus migratoriusAmerican Robin12Cathartes auraTurkey Vulture6Agelaius phoeniceusRed-Winged Blackbird12Cyanocitta cristataBlue Jay3Cardinalis cardinalisNorthern Cardinal4Tamias striatusEastern Chipmunk12Mus musculusHouse Mouse3Mustela visonMink0Procyon lotorRaccoon0Tamiasciurus hudsonicusRed Squirrel18Mephitis mephitisStriped Skunk1Odocoileus virginianusWhite-Tailed Deer9Ictalurus punctatusChannel Catfish0Pomoxis annularisWhite Crappie0Sander vitreus x Sander canadenseSaugeye0SpeciesCommon nameCountCorvus brachyrhynchosAmerican Crow6Meleagris gallopavoWild Turkey1Turdus migratoriusAmerican Robin18Cathartes auraTurkey Vulture1Agelaius phoeniceusRed-Winged Blackbird15Cyanocitta cristataBlue Jay0Cardinalis cardinalisNorthern Cardinal0Tamias striatusEastern Chipmunk6Mus musculusHouse Mouse9Mustela visonMink2Procyon lotorRaccoon0Tamiasciurus hudsonicusRed Squirrel11Mephitis mephitisStriped Skunk0Odocoileus virginianusWhite-Tailed Deer2Ictalurus punctatusChannel Catfish0Pomoxis annularisWhite Crappie0Sander vitreus x Sander canadenseSaugeye0Opossum RunSpeciesCommon nameCountCorvus brachyrhynchosAmerican Crow9Meleagris gallopavoWild Turkey0Turdus migratoriusAmerican Robin10Cathartes auraTurkey Vulture6Agelaius phoeniceusRed-Winged Blackbird12Cyanocitta cristataBlue Jay4Cardinalis cardinalisNorthern Cardinal3Tamias striatusEastern Chipmunk12Mus musculusHouse Mouse2Mustela visonMink0Procyon lotorRaccoon7Tamiasciurus hudsonicusRed Squirrel5Mephitis mephitisStriped Skunk0Odocoileus virginianusWhite-Tailed Deer1Ictalurus punctatusChannel Catfish0Pomoxis annularisWhite Crappie0Sander vitreus x Sander canadenseSaugeye0Total Species FoundLake-17; most diverse species region I found, probably in large part this was the biggest water body monitored.Dam-9; mostly fish species were dominant here thanks to the many anglers.Dry Run-11; dominated by mostly small tree dwelling mammals and birds. Biggest deer population seen here due to the vast number of pastures.Stone Run-10; had very similar results to Dry Run, where it was dominated by small animal and bird speciesOpossum Run-11; dominated by many field dwelling birds and small animals. This is due to that particular area not having a lot of tree coverage.

Animal Survey ConclusionThe data was alright, but could have been significantly better if studied in the summer months.That would boost the species number for each site to well over 100.-This is because you have to now add in insects, arachnids, and amphibians that will be spotted.Overall for the area to have the number and volume of species it did for the winter months, Ill account that to good biological stability in the Deer Creek Watershed.