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	<img alt="" src="{filedir_5}DSC_3805_1(1).jpg" style="width: 250px; height: 175px; float: right; " />Every intern that participates in Au Sable Environmental Education Internship program is uniquely different in his or her skill set and interests. Where one intern might be passionate about insects, another is drawn towards birds. There is a tremendous wealth of knowledge and experience that we can draw from each of our intern&#39;s interests while also helping them cultivate their abilities as a naturalist and educator.</p>
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	As part of the internship experience, interns are asked to create projects that will benefit fellow and future interns as well as the program in general. &nbsp;They have ranged in scope from rewriting lessons to creating a small field guide. This past fall interns Kyle, Kevin, and Rebecca used their personal interests to create some great resources for Au Sable to use in the future.<img alt="" src="{filedir_5}Foxy2.jpg" style="width: 250px; height: 175px; float: left; " />There is quite a flurry of wildlife activity on Au Sable&rsquo;s campus, unfortunately for students visiting during the day, most of this activity happens at night. To get a better idea of what wildlife are active on Au Sable&rsquo;s grounds, intern Kyle Groen set up three motion sensing cameras near suspected den sights. Over a three-week period, the cameras captured shots of foxes, porcupines, skunks... and even one curious pastor (though we doubt he is denning here!). Kyle&rsquo;s project will help future interns identify den inhabitants on Au Sable&rsquo;s property and give us a more definitive answer to the all-popular question, &ldquo;What lives in that hole?&rdquo;</p>
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	<img alt="" src="{filedir_5}Screech Owl Box.jpg" style="width: 250px; height: 240px; float: right; " /></p>
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	As far as birder stereotypes go, intern Kevin Vande Vusse plays the part. He has <em>Sibley&rsquo;s Guide to Birds</em> on his smartphone, he has a camera lens longer than my arm for shooting images of birds, and yes he has a life list (which he added to while he was here).&nbsp; So it was only natural that Kevin&rsquo;s intern project revolves around birds. One interesting species of bird that can be recruited using a bird box is the Eastern Screech Owl. Kevin&rsquo;s project was to create some literature on the Eastern Screech Owl to go along with a few Screech Owl boxes he placed on campus. We are monitoring the boxes with motion camera, and we will let you know if someone moves in!</p>
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	<img alt="" src="{filedir_5}Mushroom Guide.jpg" style="width: 250px; height: 232px; float: left; " />As the temperature drops during the fall, the number of grey days increases as moisture from Lake Michigan is redistributed on land. All this moisture stimulates the growth of fungal fruiting bodies and results in the regular recurrence of fall mushrooms. Since many of us are mycologically challenged, intern Rebecca Wadman created fall fungi flash cards depicting 15 of the most common fungi and lichen found along our trails. Interns can now use these flash cards to jump-start their knowledge of trailside fungi and use them as teaching tools with their groups.</p>
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	These projects give interns the opportunity to contribute to and improve the internship experience in a very tangible way. Moving forward, it is exciting to think about how the EEIP program will benefit from the work of past interns and what projects future interns might create to strengthen the internship experience.</p>
