ctomassetti19's Journal

I figured the nesting hummingbird would be a fun animal to observe so close to home. I only took pics when the mother left the nest. Either way it is really fun watching her knowing she has two chicks in the nest. While observing her for about 7-8 mins most of the time she was primarily just incubating the chicks in the nest. There was a short 15 second window where the mother got up and fed both babies and then proceeded to incubate again. Obviously, during this time when the chicks are very young it is important that she is constantly keeping them warms since they barely have any feathers yet. Considering how small the babies are and the fact they don't have their recognizable long beak yet I am sure as they grow she will spend less and less time incubating. To me I think this will be a very short period since the chicks take up most of the nest already only days old. As far as her short feeding period. I am sure the babies may have stimulated the mother somehow to be fed, they simply make have started waking up from a nap, but who knows. Either way she had some sense to fed them momentarily. As these chicks age I am sure she is going to start feeding them more and more as she will become more comfortable leaving them alone as the grow. I am very excited to see them develop and feel very lucky to be able to watch them fledge this spring.

I didn't really have a search process for this assignment I was lucky enough to have a love for animals as is. I took many of these photos while doing nothing related to ecology class work luckily most of it is applicable and I was able to use a bunch of different species I found while going on walks and outside during this boring time. It was tough for some species like the birds to get quality pictures without them flying off so I had to be cautious when making my moves. I certainly noticed that the plots with a lot of moist soil and was getting a good balance of water and sunlight seemed to have the most life in it. Considering we are finally in spring we it makes sense we are seeing this lively transition. I wouldn't say humans are facilitating many of the species I found other than the common slider. This was a big concept that i discussed in my research paper regarding my bluebirds considering we are unable to monitor nesting without nest boxes and we are seeing very little real secondary cavities and bluebirds nesting in them.

After searching for this species it was noticeable that they are very limited to damp, wet, hidden away areas. Every specimen was found under some type of decay whether it was a log or compost pile. They're natural color allows them to be very well hidden. There also a noticeable size variance between all three specimens. The last one was even smaller than the previous and the same one also was curled up similar to a millipede which made me second guess myself originally. The salamander is certainly limited to a very specific area of cool, dark, moist places. Their slightly rough wet skin represents the habitat they occupy. Their long slender body makes it easy for them to navigate between debris and obstacles.

https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/27468-Batrachoseps-major

Overall I was quite nervous about this process due to the fact I didn't think I was very sufficient at finding plants. Primarily since I had not done it before in this context. My plan to find all these different plants worked pretty well, actually better than anticipated. I started off at home on iNaturalist and looking up the different plants to get an idea on if anyone has located them in the immediate area close to my home or CUI. CUI was my best bet so I simply started at the Heritage Garden working along the ridge line up towards the chapel. It funny to me because I was able to find California Brittlebush, California Sagebrush, and California Buckwheat all within about 50 yards of each other. It was funny due to that I hadn't even reached the spot I expected to find them. Deerweed was very difficult for me to find and I cannot say for sure I even found it. I was basing my search area on a post on iNaturalist near CUI. I had to go off trail multiple times in the same area making circles looking for the trademark yellow. I had to start looking even closer at the plants though for leaf characteristics and the stem types to try and distinguish. Once you really look in detail at each plant you start to see the identifying characteristics between the similar ones. Even the other plants I wasnt looking for made it difficult to search.