7/5/20 – We have some guest writers on the newsletter today. The following anecdote was prepared by our favorite camphost and Sawbillian kids: Kit (4), Mia (7), Walt (4) and Supervised by Sig (1). After an eventful morning, they wanted to write and share their experience with the wider Sawbill audience. So, without further ado, we present The Mystery of the Crayfish.

“Kit, Sig, Mia and Walt were out picking up trash on the trail by the landing. Suddenly, Mia spotted a crayfish shedding! But then they realized that there were many more of them! Mia walked into the water and picked one up and tossed it onto the land so the others could see it. We thought, “It must be a crayfish shedding!” But we quickly realized that it wasn’t because it was a full crayfish. We thought, “Why would there be so many dead crayfish? Are they all sheddings?” We knew it was almost lunch time so we ran back up to the store and saw Clare (Mom) waiting for us. We said, “We have a mystery! We found many dead crayfish and we don’t know why! Do you know why?” She said she thought they might be sheddings too, but we assured her that they were not. We decided to call in some experts for help. We called Bill Hansen (aka Pop Pop), but he didn’t answer. So we called Haha (aka Cindy Lou Hansen). Luckily she answered. She asked us a few questions and just like us, wondered if they could be sheddings. We said we were sure they were not sheddings because they had their whole exoskeleton including their pincers. Cindy Lou had another hypothesis. She wondered if maybe some kids had caught some crayfish with a flashlight at night and left them in a bucket. Maybe the bucket got a little too hot and the kids dumped them back into the lake without realizing they were dead.

The moral of the story is be careful with the animals you catch in nature. Thank you to Cindy Lou and Bill Hansen (Ha Ha and Pop Pop) for helping us solve the Mystery of the Dead Crayfish!”

Thanks for reading!

-Mia, Walt, Kit and Sig