Leksi Bender – Environmental Science Internship

My name is Leksi Bender and I am a senior at Garden Spot High School, and I have had the amazing opportunity to be an intern at Middle Creek Wildlife Management Center in Stevens, PA.  I go in every Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday at 8:00 am and spend an average of 12 hours there each week. My day-to-day is very different from other internships, as I work with wildlife on an almost daily basis, which is by far my favorite part of the internship. When I’m not working with wildlife, I’m helping out in the visitor center, with the habitat crew, and even sometimes with educational tools and interacting with visitors. Usually, my day starts out with duck banding and then I head over to the visitor center to help out there for the rest of the day. During this internship, I observe my mentor, Brian Collett, and his other colleagues who work in the visitor center and around the property. So far I have learned so much about wildlife conservation, specifically waterfowl and wetland species, as well as some of the educational aspects of Middle Creek.

While being at the visitor center and observing Brian and all of his colleagues I have learned so much! One of the big things I have learned about is how important education is in wildlife conservation. The best way for the Pennsylvania Game Commission to spread awareness about wildlife conservation and invasive species is to teach the next generation and current generations about it. One way that they do this at Middle Creek is by bringing in school groups, mostly from elementary schools, and doing presentations with them. They also mainly do hands-on learning, like showing the kids pelts, casts of tracks, skulls, and even bird wings and feet. They also sometimes even do hikes with the kids and teach them about different plants on the trails. They also have seminars, where they bring in people on the weekends to teach anyone who wants to come about a specific topic related to natural resources or conservation. That’s not where the education stops either. Middle Creek is always posting on social media about events going on there, the snow geese migration, and any other important things that are going on at Middle Creek.

As I said before, by far my favorite part of this internship has been working with the wildlife. Mainly it has been waterfowl and geese so far, but hopefully, in the next couple of months, I will be able to help with Kestrel banding, songbird banding, turkey banding, and maybe even catching invasive Asian Carp in the lake. How I’ve been working with waterfowl has been duck banding. Banding ducks is when you place a metal identification band around a duck’s leg. This does not hurt the duck at all and its purpose is to let us know the migratory patterns of that bird or its species, and how long it typically lives for. Another really interesting thing that I just learned about Middle Creek is that they have a field dedicated to highland cows and bog turtles. You would normally think that both of these animals have nothing in common, but highland cows actually create great habitats for nesting bog turtles. Highland cattle do great in wetter soils, and as they walk around their hooves create indents in the grassy soil, which is perfect for bog turtle nests. I thought this was awesome because it really connected the agricultural part of my life to the conservation side of it. One thing I’m currently working on is learning how to pin and preserve wings and feet for educational purposes. We cut the meat out of the wing, then put borax into the crevice and place it down on a piece of cardboard. I then use T-pins to pin the wing into a position that displays all of the feathers. The borax dries out the wing and preserves it so that we can keep it and use it to educate kids on flight feathers and identification.

This internship has overall been amazing so far and I am really glad I’ve been able to get this hands-on experience with wildlife that most people wouldn’t have the chance to do. I’ve learned so much and gained so much from this internship, like opening myself up to new people and interacting better with people, as well as wildlife. It has also given me insight into what I possibly want to do in the future, which was originally being a State Game Warden. Now, I’m questioning whether I still want to do that, or if I want to do something that does more field work and interacts with wildlife on a daily basis. I’m so excited and can’t wait for what the next couple of months have in store for me in this internship!