Skimmer Says... Internships!

Welcome back! This month we're getting to know our newest staff members, our 2025 summer interns Faye and Audrey! Tune in to meet them and learn about their exciting experience with their projects at the DNERR! 

To contact the education team about an education program or volunteer event, email us at dnerrprograms@delaware.gov.

You can follow us on Facebook at @DNERR or Instagram at @delawarenerr.

Transcript

0:04

Welcome to Skimmer Says an estuarine podcast hosted by the Delaware National Estuarine Research Reserve. I'm your host, Laurel, the education coordinator, and with me today I have our two lovely interns, Faye and Audrey. Would you two like to introduce yourselves? Hello, everyone. My name is Audrey and I'm the Avian Education intern. Hi, I'm Faye, and I'm the research intern. So would you like to give us a general overview? How it's going to work a little bit today and ask you some questions. We're going to play a game and then I have some questions from our coastal chat. So, do you want to give me a general overview on where you're from, what you're working on, and maybe a fun fact. So I'm from Dover, Delaware, and I've been working on our trash nest project. So I have been deconstructing nests that were collected over the winter, and all of our deconstructions and collections have been done under a permit from Fish and Wildlife. So I've been going through nests and taking out all the bits of trash, if I find any, and filling out a data sheet. And then after I deconstructed all of my nests, I fill out, I go through my data sheets, and I have a huge spreadsheet of what trash I found, from which species, and we kind of look for patterns in the trash that was used, how it was used. And I've been kind of building off of last year's intern’s data and using my own to then make a lesson plan to teach the public about my project. That's awesome. And you’ve been working with Christina and I on that project, so that's really exciting. She was on the podcast before, too. Faye, what are you doing? I'm from Longmeadow, Massachusetts, and I am working on the horseshoe crab epibiont project. So for the first few weeks, I went out to the beaches nearby and I collected, flipped horseshoe crabs. And I gave them a little bath, took a bunch of pictures of them, and then I sent them on their merry way. And now I have all of these photos, and I've been looking at all of the epibionts, all of the attached organisms to the horseshoe crabs. So I went through like 3000 photos and I went through and I made, like, took note of all of the attached organisms. And now I'm just going through with that data, and I'm analyzing it and writing a report of it. And the like long term goal is to create a guide of all the different epibionts on the crabs. That is pretty cool. And you're working with Taylor on that project. Taylor and Molly. Yeah. That's awesome. So before we get into a game time, do you want to give us one fun fact about yourself? So my fun fact is I have a two year old Australian cattle dog named Kane, and I like to knit and I like to knit my own sweaters. That's so fun. I love both of those facts. All right, so we are going to move into our game time. And so this is the first time that we've done this game time. So it's called word association. And I am going to say a word. And I want you to tell me the first thing that pops into your head. Okay. All right. Summer. Beach. Oh I was going to say beach. Swimming. Intern. Research. Summer. Horseshoe crab. Survey. Oh, so you guys survey and sand. All right, last one. Bird nest. Trash. I was also going to say trash. Habitat. Habitat. Nice. That was pretty good. It seems like you two are very much on the same page. I love it. All right, so we. This is our second year of having the DNREC internship program. And so you both are DNREC interns. So a little bit about the experience that you guys are having. What's your day to day like working here at the reserve? So in a typical day, I will kind of go through my data that I've collected. And recently I have been more so working on developing my lesson plan. In the beginning it was more so going through the nests and just filling out my data sheets. And now that I'm towards the end of my internship, I've been constructing my lesson plan and kind of finalizing it in order to be able to teach it. Yeah, and we're working on that lesson plan so that we can do a teacher workshop called teachers on the estuary all about our bird's nest. So that's really exciting. Faye, what's your typical day look like? Similar to Audrey, it's kind of been like in different stages. So in the beginning, it was a lot of going to the beaches and collecting all the crabs. And then there was a couple weeks spent just counting every single epibiont on, like 150 different crabs. And then now it's been just a lot of data analysis, preparing like graphs, visuals and like takeaways to make a presentation for the intern symposium. And then I'm going to start writing up a final report on that. And then I also sometimes will go do like other like field work things with the other scientists here at the reserve. So that's been super fun. It's pretty exciting. What would you say is the most valuable thing that you've learned so far in your time here? I've gotten a lot better at data analysis in my time here, since I had 130 nests to go through. It's been fun making all the different graphs and kind of seeing what graphs show what, and kind of making it easy to understand for the general public, because not everyone has a scientific mindset. So it's pretty cool to be able to translate that to people. Okay. I think I've just kind of learned a lot about all the different things people are doing at the reserve with, like, all the different environmental science backgrounds that people have. And it's been really interesting to see all the different ways people use that, like in education and research. And just like, I didn't realize how many things were going on here and all the different possibilities. Yeah, we, we're very busy little bees. We have fun, but we get our work done, right? So Audrey talked a little bit about learning and working on building some data analysis skills. But what other skills may you have learned or worked on strengthening during your time here? I have also worked on my public speaking skills and teaching lessons. I have got to do a few field trips that have come to the reserve and got to teach some of the lessons that we already have, as well as working on my own lessons and preparing to teach those. Awesome. I've learned a lot about different like field work skills. I come from a more data background than a more like sciency biological background, so I've learned a lot about all the different like things people are doing in the field and how those get done. And then I also learned a lot about like kind of having a full project that's really like mine from start to finish. I've learned a lot about collecting your own data and like then putting that into a good, usable format and then getting to analyze it. So it's been really, really cool to be involved in every step of the process on my project. Awesome. And what would you say is your favorite part about working here? I really love the office community that we have here. Like Laurel said, we like to have fun while still getting our work done, and it's just a really good environment to spend my summer in. Oh I love that. That was really good. I would say that my favorite part of working here also like the lovely people, there's just really good vibes going all around. I like getting to be on the podcast. That's really cool. Yeah. That was your dream? Yeah, it was my big dream. My dad is a big fan, so. Hi, dad. I've also just really enjoyed. I feel like I keep saying the same things, but I've really enjoyed all the different field work I've gotten to do. I've gotten to do, like, surface elevation tables. I got to go on a nekton trawl. I've gotten to do green bulkhead monitoring, and then, of course, the horseshoe crab stuff. I've gotten to go on a couple surveys too, so I just really like that I'm not doing like the same thing every day. I like that I get to really experience a lot of the different things that happen at the Reserve. Yeah, I'm really proud of all of the work that we do here at the reserve, and also the culture and the community that we've built here. I think that the people that we have make up a lot of what builds the reserve, and there's lots of personalities here for sure. All right. So as you all know, you got to meet a good chunk of the coastal team throughout your time here. Whenever we have a podcast, we always ask our coastal chat what questions they have. So these are from your coworkers. Some folks wanted to know how you found out about the internship? I found out about the internship from the Texas A&M Job Board, which is kind of a, like random source, but my ornithology professor at my college highly recommended it, so I was just checking it out one day, and I think I found the link to it, and I was like, oh wow, this is really cool. And I had been studying ornithology in my class, so I was like, this would be something really cool to kind of further my bird experience and my bird knowledge. And I applied. That's awesome. I also found it online. I'm from Massachusetts, so I was kind of looking for a summer experience so I could kind of go wherever. I just kind of want to experience going and living in a bunch of different places and seeing what's going on, and especially with something that's more environmental based. I think that like, if you want to do a horseshoe crab project, this is a really good place to do it. So I found it online and I thought it was interesting. I thought it would be cool to like, combine both my data and environmental science backgrounds. And so I just applied and yeah, here we are. So Faye, I’ll ask you this question because Audrey and I are both from Delaware. Are you liking it? Yeah, I think it's really nice. This is my first time like living close to the beach. So I've been taking a lot of advantage of that. So that's been really nice. I go and have dinner on the beach a lot. And I just, I like the beach. That’s awesome. So some of these questions are a little bit similar. What has been your favorite experience so far? Different from working at the reserve. What's your favorite experience? What is the favorite thing that you've done? My favorite experience was actually going out and doing the horseshoe crab survey. It was really cool to see that many crabs, all at the same time in one place, and like being able to be hands on and counting the crabs. I had never seen that many before, even though I've lived here my whole life, so it was really fun. Yeah, it's always a good time. Faye, what's your favorite experience? My favorite experience. I learned how to drive the boat here. That was really, really fun. I really like boats. So I went with Taylor on a surface elevation table. Field work day. And I got to learn how to drive the boat, and that was really, really cool and fun to go on a little boat ride down the St. Jones River. That's awesome. That's what Sadie and I are doing tonight. So what do you hope to do after you're done with the internship or school? Like, what are your hopes and dreams? I have been looking at a few different positions and kind of relating to this internship. I have been looking at some positions, doing more of the fieldwork side, but I've also been looking at some more doing education and outreach, and I've kind of gotten to develop both of them through this internship. So it has been really helpful in both of those aspects. But I'm not 100% set on either one of them. So. So we'll see where I go. Yeah, the best time about being fresh out of college is that you have the time to explore and learn and figure out what it is that you want to do before you settle into a job for years. So that's exciting. Faye, what do you got on the docket? Well, I still have two more years of school, so I'm going to finish those up and ask me in two years, and hopefully I'll have a more solid plan. But this internship has been really, really enlightening for me. Just because I haven't had, like, a summer where I've done something so, like environmental based. So I think that this has definitely kind of helped me realize that I do really like this work, and I think it is something I want to continue doing with my data analytics background. But I'm not exactly sure. I kind of want to go see the world, see what's going on. And so I'll kind of go wherever. I just want a lot of new experiences, and I want to keep doing work that I'm passionate about. And we'll see where that takes me. I'm looking forward to seeing what sorts of adventures you get into next. So I do hope you keep in touch. All right. I have two more for you. What is your favorite sea or coastal creature and why? I would say my favorite is a horseshoe crab, because all of my younger years, I remember going to the beaches and running around with my sister, and we would always find the horseshoe crabs and save the flipped ones, take them back to the water and it's just a really good memory and I think they're super cool. That's awesome. I really like sharks. I don't really have a reason. I just really like them. I think they're very cool. I think they're super interesting creatures. I think they look really cool. I think they're really fun. I have a really cool pair of shark pajama pants. So I just really like them, I always have I don't much of a reason. Do you have a favorite species of shark? Is it like the cookie cutter shark or the great white? I really like a hammerhead shark. Hammerhead. I think they look really fun. They have a big personality, I love that. Yeah. All right. And then this last question is a opportunity for you to paint us a picture. Okay? Okay. So can you describe a salt marsh to someone who has never seen one before? I would say a saltmarsh is like an area where it's kind of like a wet grassy area that changes a lot with the tides. So it can look very different depending on what time you're visiting. And there's a lot of cool creatures that live there, a lot of cool plants that live there because of the salt environment. That's a good answer. Faye, what you got? Okay, let me paint you a picture. So you are in a lot of mud. So much mud. And there's a lot of really tall grasses. There's a river. There's just again, so much mud. Hopefully you have waders or some way to avoid all of this mud. The water is salty. Of course. You're seeing a lot of fun critters. A lot of cool birds. I really like the salt marsh here, because I'm a really big fan of the fiddler crabs. They're just going all around and. Okay, I really thought I would have more to say, but there's just so much mud and so much grasses. And I guess if you've never been there, that's probably the best way to describe it. It's definitely something you have to experience in person. So all the sights, sounds and smells. Oh, yeah. Yeah. So do you two have anything else? I don’t think so. If not, then I think that that's what the skimmer has to say about our interns. Next month, we'll be talking to our neighbors over at the John Dickinson Plantation. So we hope that you have a nice month, and we'll see you next time on Skimmer Says. Bye bye.