Well, Heather and I stumbled out of bed this morning around 5:30 (after two alarms, my clock and my cat), sipped some coffee and watched the sun rise. It could have been a typical school day, actually, but this morning we were heading out for our first bioblitz of the week.
We decided to leisurely browse our campus arboretum for a couple hours this morning. It's a marshy, three to four acre forest with ample water sources, including a small bog (below), a sizable creek and a pond. Our soccer field, softball field and football fields are in close proximity, which limits the relative diversity of the area, but we had a good couple of hours.
The two biggest highlights were spotting a huge raven that flew directly over us, landing in a nearby tree for several minutes, and just as we were on our way out, seeing a muskrat lumber across the trail ahead, slinking into the marsh.
The complete list of organisms found is below the fold. I'll be blitzing another riparian forest (this one less homogenous) next weekend for the wrap up.
Birds
- Black-capped Chickadee (Poecile atricapilla) 2
- Song Sparrow (Melospiza melodia) 7
- House Sparrow (Passer domesticus) 3
- American Robin (Turdus migratorius) 7
- Red-winged Blackbird (Agelaius phoeniceus) 4
- Dark-eyed Junco (Junco hyemalis) 1
- Cardinal, male and female (Cardinalis cardinalis) 2
- Northern Flicker (Colaptes auratus) 1
- American Crow (Corvus brachyrhynchos) 2
- Blue-gray Gnatcatcher (Polioptila caerulea) 1
- Tufted Titmouse (Baeolophus bicolor) 3
- Yellow-bellied Sapsucker (Sphyrapicus varius) 1
- Black-throated blue warbler (Dendroica caerulescens) 1
- Rock Pigeon (Columba livia) 1
- Northern Raven (Corvus corax) 1
- Downy Woodpecker (Picoides pubescens) 1
- Summer Tanager (Piranga rubra) 1
Mammals
- White-tailed Deer (Odocoileus virginianus) 1
- Muskrat (Ondatra zibethicus) 1
- Groundhog (Marmota monax) 5
- Eastern Gray Squirrel (Sciurus carolinensis) 2
- Cottontail Rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus) 3
Lichen/Moss
- Delicate Fern Moss (Thuidium delicatulum)
- Four Tooth Moss (Tetraphis pellucida)
- Cushion Moss (Leucobryum glaucum)
- Broom Moss (Dicranum scoparium)
Trees
- Red Maple (Acer rubrum) 20+
- Sugar Maple (Acer saccharum) 20+
- Eastern White Pine (Pinus strobus) 2
- Eastern Red Cedar (Juniperus virginiana) 3
Invertebrates
- Underwoodia iuloides 3
- Common Earthworm (Lumbricus terrestris) 6
- Cyclosa Conica 1
- Ground Beetle (Spongopus verticalis) 3
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I never realized that you all in Western Maryland have black-capped when we have Carolina chickadees. Cool that you saw a tanager. I think I'm going to get that mini-millipede, too!