Diario de umassksass

Today was our last bio lab working on the vernal pond BioCube. We spent the majority of our time going through the materials we brought back from our excavated cube last week. We did not find any new species, but we did get better identification of many species. One surprising thing that we found was that the spiders we captured last week were still alive this week (and scared us a few times when opening their jars). Additionally, the water strider we got also was still alive and very feisty this week. Sifting through the mud we did not find any new species, mostly unidentifiable roots of grasses. We took a lot of time getting better pictures of species and looking through some literature.

I spent the majority of lab today working on developing our BioCube video as I was the cameraman and editor for our film. Due to that, I did not upload any new observations this week. Overall, I enjoyed this experience. It was a bit too cold a bit too early in the morning some days on the farm, but getting to do field work was a valuable experience and the project as a whole was fun.

The first thing noticeable upon arriving at the farm today was the fact that the environment was much greener than last week. A week ago we started to see the beginnings of growth, but it was very apparent without even close inspection this week. After arriving at the vernal pools, we noticed that the landscape seemed overall changed from the previous week. Some spots seemed flatter and some seemed more overgrown. My best guess is that this was due to the heavy amount of rain throughout the last week. We also disturbed some of the larger wildlife that was there just by our presence. I think I saw a rabbit running through the bushed on the other bank and I believe the hole I found last week may be its home, I attached the photos I took today to this journal. Additionally, I noticed two deer running across the fields towards the coniferous forest, which really started my day off right. After we started to look through the area, I noticed a lot of plants we noticed weeks prior are finally changing, which was exciting. Most noticeably, the pussy willows are starting to bloom which made me happy, especially because I am specializing in it for my population dynamics paper. We found, I believe, two different stages of it depending on where on the farm we were looking. The ground was a TON slushier than it had been previously, once again due to the extreme amount of rain we received. We hoped the wetter conditions would bring out more amphibious species but we still failed to find any, but we did find a lot more spiders. The ice melted that we found algae frozen to last week. Throughout the whole visit there was an on and off slight rain which looked very pretty on the pools, in my opinion.

The moment of silence this week was much noisier than last week. The birds were constant this week, which enabled me to approximately locate where each call might have been coming from, despite them all being far away. There was a bit of rain which was honestly relaxing because it wasn't raining hard and I love the sound and feel of it. There were less sounds from the road this week, maybe because it slightly earlier, which was nice. There was the church bell at the half hour again though. I actually sat on the ground this time and I was a bit cold by the end.

I wish we had one more week in the field because I really wanted to find some different animal life. I also really enjoyed watching the transformation of the farm over the few visits. I can't say that I would necessarily want to do field work in the future, but I did really value and appreciate these experiences.

When first getting to the farm this week, we immediately noticed several differences in both the landscape and the species present in comparison to last week. Overall, the water levels seemed to be lower. Additionally, the water appeared murkier, which may have been due to runoff from the rain. It was overall a brighter day which not only lightened the area, but our moods. I noticed a lot more birds both visually and they called out a lot more. Sophia was able to picture a few of the birds, but nothing up close or of unusual activity from them. There was less wind as well, which I think aided in our excitement to look for species, in addition to allowing more species to be present. Last week we noticed almost no color in the area, but this week we finally started seeing a bit more green from the grasses that were starting to sprout. We did, however, take extra care to find and picture many different aspects of the dead plants in the area. Hongli also became our spider expert and found a few species of spiders. We didn't have much luck digging through the mud, but it still may just be too early in the season for a lot of biodiversity to appear. My favorite moment of the day was when a duck flew pretty close overhead. When I broke off from the group to do by moment of silence, I was able to find some cool moss which captured my interest and also a hole which I was unable to identify or get very good pictures of. I attached pictures of both the hole and the moss to this post. I am unsure if something was living within the hole as it seemed vaguely old, but it is possible some kind of rodent was living there or will be in the near future. Looking at the weather for next week, this might end up being the best week for finding biodiversity, but I am still holding out hope for clear and dry weather next week.

In my moment of silence I observed a lot more than last week, mostly due to less wind I think. After about a minute or so into the silence the birds showed up. They remained mostly in the distance, but I did hear a few sounds close up. It felt almost like every minute a new, unique bird sound happened. Almost all of my observations were sound based besides some shifting of the shadows. I heard some shifting in the grass / reeds further downstream from me and at one point I'm pretty sure I heard a deep frog sound. Also a few breezes made the branches shift and make sound. Unfortunately I also heard a bit of sounds from the road and at 10am I heard church bells. Towards the end I had a few bugs land on me, but nothing that lingered long enough to be even remotely identifiable.

Next week I'm really hoping to find some more diversity within my biocube. We have found most things outside of the cube, especially on the shore. I'm sure some of the extractions we take back to the lab will be good. I'm keeping my hopes up for week 3.