Creeking: A Local Adventure

Creeking is a Huck Finn-style summer adventure where you can take along a net and a basin to see what you can find in the water.

You don’t have to go too far to find a creek in Reston. Many clusters have creeks running behind them. The trails frequently parallel a creek or stream.

Recently , Reston Association offered two creek excursions at Buttermilk Creek (near for the young nature lover.

Naturalist Ken Rosenthal, in between handing out nets and picking up worms, talked a little about creeking in Reston.

“You are likely to find minnows and possibly tadpoles this time of year. We’ve seen frogs in the water too,” said Rosenthal.

Plenty of insects are in, on and near the water, including the water striders that were delighting the children at this program. Rosenthal showed how to roll, rather than lift, a rock (or log) to look under it for salamanders and to roll it gently back in place.

The children in the group were into the whole water experience, and were very intrigued by the worm, tadpoles and minnows Rosenthal found and put into the viewing bucket. (To identify your finds, field guides are available at the Walker Nature Education Center and the library and E-nature has a Chesapeake Bay Field Guide iPhone app.

Rosenthal offered some expert creeking advice:

• Sturdy shoes, that you don’t mind getting wet. Rosenthal advises against crocs since they tend to float. Rocks can be sharp and you never know what else may be in the water.
• Keep eyes open for snakes.  The poisonous copperhead isn’t a water snake, but that doesn’t mean they might not be lurking. The water snakes in our region are not poisonous, but can give a nasty bite. Give them wide berth if you see them.
• Stay out of the creeks after a heavy rainfall. Admire from a distance, but don’t ever go into rushing water.
• Don’t leave anything behind - in fact, remove trash if you can - and don’t take anything out.

“Explore nature, but put them back,” said Rosenthal.