Diario de alexhe

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Time & Date: 19/12/5; 13:50
Duration: 30 mins
Location: Monarch Wood Park, ON
Weather: little snow, Cloudy, 0 degrees, windy, snow-covered
Habitat: Forest.
Vegetation: maple, oak, elm.
Narrative:
This ecosystem is dominated by forest, and it also has a creek that supplies water to the ecosystem. Similar to other ecosystems, this ecosystem also has many squirrels. This ecosystem is very similar to Anndale Park, but there are lesser conifer trees. There are only a few species in the ecosystem based on birds' sound. It is hard to hear any kind of birds sound, the only sound I found is Crows which eat most things they found, they live in this area all year long. Also, the tracks showed there are Meadow Vole, those small mammals eat seeds and fruit, they usually come out at night which makes them hard to observe. Since the ecosystems are similar, they may want to reduce the time spent outside to aware of predators such as Hawk. This ecosystem is very quiet and there are influencing of humans. People live in nearby neighborhoods walk their dogs here and may have a negative effect on the ecosystem. Also, this ecosystem is on a mountain unlike other ecosystems on the plain, so the flow of water may influence the nutrient on different attitudes (carry nutrient to lower attitude). The grasses in this ecosystem are also covered by snow and hard to ID.

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Time & Date: 19/12/4; 14:00
Duration: 30 mins
Location: Annedale Park, ON
Weather: Cloudy, 0 degrees, little wind, snow-covered
Habitat: Forest.
Vegetation: pine, maple, oak, cedar .
Narrative:
In this location, the Parks is surrounded by different neighborhoods, and the park is relatively isolated compared to other parks, there are few trails that lead to the insider of the forest. I found a brown fox in the forest which is hard to take a photo because it runs away quickly, it may eat small birds such as house sparrow in that area. Squirrels can also be found in this area, and they may eat the seed of conifers. there is evidence of Dryocopus which eats the insect from bark, but the bird is not found. There is a creek in that ecosystem to provide water, but it is far away from the part I am visiting since more trails are not accessible due to snow. there is a Hawk flying on the sky which lives there all year long, it may find small mammals and birds to eat. This ecosystem is less influenced by humans compared to the previous ones because it is hard to walk inside the park followed by the trails. the ecosystem is different from High Park because there are only forests without grasslands, so fox might be easy to hide in the forest. There are many kinds of grass species, but hard to ID due to the snow.

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Time & Date: 19/11/14; 16:30
Duration: 60 mins
Location: Waterloo Park, ON
Weather: Cloudy, 0 degrees, little wind, snow-covered
Habitat: Creek, grassland
Vegetation: Spruces, eastern white pine, maple, oak, goldenrod .
Narrative:

This area is very different from the Toronto high park because there are fewer people visited this area, and there are fewer tree plants covering the area, the majority of the area is covered by grass(snow at the time) with few trees. there are many conifers in the area I visited because they adapt well to cold conditions. Squirrels are very common among most ecosystems, and they can eat seeds from those conifers. There are at least four types of bird sound, and I ID based on sound to find Nuthatches and Woodpecker, but it is not very acuity. Both of those species live in this area all year long, and woodpecker feeding on insects lives in the tree, and Nuthatches feed on seeds (able to found on dry plants). There are some rabbit in this habitat and they can feed on those grass when the ground is not covered by snow; also there are some birds flying, they might be a duck species, but it is not clear, and they fly around the same spot, so they are less likely on the way of migrating. Also, there are tacks that likely belong to white-tailed deer, but not sure. those animals might be eating conifer's leaves. Also, based on the tracks, the area is less influenced by a human (might because of winter) compared to High Park.

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Time & Date: 19/10/14; 9:00
Duration: 90 mins
Location: Toronto High Park, ON
Weather: Sunny, 10 degrees, medium to strong wind,
Habitat: Forest, Creek, grassland
Vegetation: Subtribe carduinae, Spindles., Willow, Maples, Winged Euonymus, etc.
Narrative:
High Park is a very large park in Toronto, and there are many people interacting with this ecological habitat. During the outing, I can observe many people walk their dogs which many change the wildlife feeding behaviors. House Sparrow live in there all year long, the creek can provide enough water to them, and there are many insects and nuts in the forest that they can feed on. Mallard and Mute Swan also living in the habitat for the whole year, and they can feed by fishes from the creek; also, there are some visitors feeding them which may ineracting their wild habitat. Northern Cardinal also live there for the whole year, they can find seed from the forest and eat them. All those birds and squirrels have their home range within the park because it can provide enough water, food, and nutrient to them. there are few predatory animals because the human influencing, so birds can live safely, but the record showed there are observations of large Canidae in the park. The plant species are really diverse, such as red maple, bur oak, those trees, and many grass and flowers. Those plant species can provide food and shelter for animals.

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Time & Date: 19/09/30; 1600
Duration: 30 mins
Location: a lake on the east of Columbia lake(Laurel Trail)
Weather: Sunny, 19 degree
Habitat: wetland, lake.
Vegetation: Goldenrod, Cattail, Willow, Sage, Grass.
Narrative:
I observed a large group of a blackbird (possibly: Song Sparrow or chimney swift [rare] ), they travel from television tower to the tree, they may feed on the tree and nest on the tower which provided protection to them. That area is likely the home range for those birds, so they feed and live there. I observed four brown duck on the surface of the lake, they may eat insect and small animals ( there are many insects present in that area), they may be American Black Duck which lives in this area with food and nest, they can also be some human-introduced species (The sunlight is very bright during the afternoon, so I cannot see the color of the duck, I can only tell they have dark color and Duck's sound) . Also, some Sea Gull (Herring Gull) present on the sky, they are too high to see, they might be able to find fishes from Columbia Lake, and they are found because it is their breeding season, and they migrated to Waterloo. The lake has many insect species that provided good food sources for birds. I did not find any mammals, this might be caused by the inference of humans. There is an ION railway, parking lot, and some buildings around that lake, the sound of the train and human activities might influence their behavior, so I cannot find them. Grassland has surrounded by the lake, and many wildflowers can be found such as asters and Elaeagnus sp., those grasslands provide a good habitat for insects (gross hopper, etc.) that birds can eat.