29 de noviembre de 2022

Insects/ Animals Nature Walk

On this nature walk, I decided to go by myself to the Houghton Garden/ Webster Woods area to see if I can observe some animals in their natural habitat. This was actually really hard to do and I was not able to capture as much pictures of insects and animals that I wanted to. At first, I thought going to Houghton Garden was enough but I had to go to Webster Woods as well and also to the Reservoir where I had a hunch that I would be able to observe some geese and I was right! The weather today was partly cloudy and it was a bit chilly but not too chilly that it was uncomfortable being outside. I think a combination of the cold weather and proximity to human beings caused there to be less animals out in the open. I heard lots of bird calls but I was not able to spot any birds. I've noticed from the insects I observed that they are kind of dull in color and also that they are small and fast so when trying to observe them, I have to focus on little flashes of color in my vision and hope that they land on a twig or a leaf. Out of the 3 insects I observed, two of them were observed individually while one was observed in a group of the same species. I wonder if the one that was observed in a group has evolved a form of communication so they know where to fly to find food or whatever they were doing hovering over the water. It reminds me of in class, we learned that animals have different modes of communication such as auditory forms or visual forms. I wonder if the insects here are using a combination of visual and olfactory modes of communication. Outside of insects, I was able to capture pictures of birds, namely geese and swans. I wonder if the geese are still migrating currently since it is fall and what type of method they use to migrate such as visual landmarks or a sun compass. I also saw a plant that was super cool and I added it because I wanted to know what it was. It seems to have an interesting seed/ seed-spreading technique where it looks like white fur. I also added in another picture of plants with holes in the leaf as a sort of evidence that an animal was there and made that mark on the plant. When organisms move, it is harder to capture a picture of them because sometimes they are moving too fast and other times, if they are still, getting too close may set them in motion again. This was another great walk and I enjoyed it a lot.

Publicado el noviembre 29, 2022 04:16 MAÑANA por ktang10 ktang10 | 7 observaciones | 0 comentarios | Deja un comentario

20 de octubre de 2022

Plants Nature Walk

On this nature walk, I went to the Pine reserves on our school campus at night around 9pm. I was booked and busy this whole week and on Wednesday, this was the only time I could squeeze into my day to do my nature walk and to observe some plants. By that time, the air was very cold and I shivered my way through my nature walk. It was also very dark but since plants are so abundant, I was able to find and identify different species without much problems. I tried my best to find plants from all 4 main groups of plants. The first plant I took a picture of was a species of ferns which were seedless vascular plants. I also saw both flowering plants and also evergreen plants. I was not able to find any mosses probably because of a combination of the dark and the cold temperature. At night, I also noticed the lack of animals. The only animals I saw were the geese? or swan? in the reservoir and they seemed to be sleeping. While looking at the different types of plants, I wondered about the adaptations of these plants, specifically leaf size, in helping them survive. Why do some plants have thinner leaves while some have really broad leaves? While thinking of this question, I remember our lesson on how plants are photolithoautotrophs. Because of their need to use the sun as a source of energy, I expect broader leaves to be more advantageous to gather more sunlight. What type of advantage of the leaves of an evergreen plant provide in sacrifice of getting more sunlight? This walk was a great way for me to calm down after a very busy day and listen to some music alone while observing nature.

Publicado el octubre 20, 2022 06:25 MAÑANA por ktang10 ktang10 | 11 observaciones | 0 comentarios | Deja un comentario

06 de octubre de 2022

Fungi Nature Walk

On this nature walk, I once again went on a TA led trek to Houghton Garden with a bunch of other Eco Evo students. The weather was very gloomy and overcast. During the walk, it was raining a bit and the soil and plants around us were very wet. I observed a lot of fungi during this walk and it might be because of the wetness in the environment due to the rain. This reminds me of how we learned that bacteria and fungi are major decomposers in our ecosystem and I wonder if wetness helps facilitates this decomposition and if so how. This also reminded me of our lecture on how we identify species by different species concepts and I was wondering if fungi is identified mainly based on the morphospecies concept. I observed a lot of differnt fungi and lichen during the walk and I noticed that a lot of the fungi sort of blend in with the brown leaves and soil of the forest floor. I enjoyed this rainy day walk even though usually, I dislike rainy weather.

Publicado el octubre 6, 2022 02:26 TARDE por ktang10 ktang10 | 16 observaciones | 0 comentarios | Deja un comentario

30 de septiembre de 2022

Nature Walk at Houghton Garden with some Friends

Today I went on a nature walk at Houghton Garden with two TA's and 2 other sophomore Eco Evo students. I have never really taken a walk through that part of the neighborhood that our college campus is next to. The houses looked really expensive and it made me think about how rich this area is. Houghton Garden is not that far from campus, it is probably only about an 8 minute walk from upper along Hammond Street and then a right turn down another street. The weather today was really nice, partly cloudy skies and it was not too cold. Very reminiscent of an early fall weather. The garden itself was really pretty and it is a nice place to just trek through and take in the natural world around us. I think I might find myself here sometimes so I am glad that I was introduced to this place. In the garden, there was a variety of plant life and I took a lot of pictures of flowers and trees. There is also a train line right next to the garden that we passed as we observed the biodiversity around us. There were also lots of lichen on rocks and moss as well. The first picture I took was actually a tree that seemed to have berry like things growing from it. This walk made me think about the lesson of biodiversity in class and how so many species have evolved to best fit the environment that they are in. I also noticed patches of areas where there is one species but not another species which made me wonder if these species adapted to different niches in their environment. I also saw a chipmunk but it was hiding and I could not get a picture of it. There were also lots of grey squirrels that I saw and it reminds me of the squirrels back in NYC because they looked alike and I believe they are of the same species. It also made me wonder if the geographic distance between here and NYC have caused their genetic diversity to be a little different. While I love being a city kid and I love the city a lot, it is also nice to appreciate nature and be surrounded by it once in a while. Back in NYC, I loved to go on walks by the river and in parks because it brought me closer to nature and I think the design of urban coexistence with nature is really beautiful. It was nice to go on a little walk again. Overall, it was a really fun meandering walk and I really appreciated the fact that I went on this walk and met some new people.

Publicado el septiembre 30, 2022 07:56 TARDE por ktang10 ktang10 | 5 observaciones | 0 comentarios | Deja un comentario

Archivos