Observing the Putah Creek Experimental Ecosystem

Once again another productive yet exhausting meeting! Today we went and explored areas near Putah Creek and observed some local fauna. Kora led the group today to three different areas: the drainage pond, the grasslands, and along the creek itself. Our goal for today was to make some more observations and to generate some ideas on possible questions or species we would want to do our research project on. 

Our meeting minutes:

9:00 AM	Meet at Putah Creek Experimental Ecosystem
9:20 AM	Inside the gate, instructions from Kora
9:25 AM	Individual/group exploration at the drainage pond
9:50 AM	Whole class discussion of observations of drainage pond
10:05 AM	Individual/group exploration of grasslands
10:50 AM	Whole class discussion of observations of grasslands
11:15 AM	Break at the cars
11:35 AM	Individual/group exploration of Putah Creek
12:10	Set agenda for next meeting

Drainage Pond Highlights:

Unfortunately, there were no beavers as the name "Beaver Pond" suggests. There were however, a surplus of red-winged blackbirds! We noticed the red-wing blackbirds making distinct calls, which we were not sure if they were mating or intimidation calls. 

Something else we noticed was that there weren't many insects in this area, or many animals in general besides the birds. An interesting observation, as there were a plethora of insects at the other areas we visited. 

Takeaways from this area were that if we wanted to study red-winged blackbirds and anything related to their mating habits, calls, species interactions, or anything really that here would be the place to do it!

Grasslands Highlights:

Suddenly, the red-winged blackbirds stopped and were replaced by many other specimens. In this area we observed lots of bees, mosquitoes, aphids, ladybug larvae, and even caught a caterpillar, some pupae, and a wolf spider with an egg sac! 

We also noticed some really cool paw prints in this area! Some that looked like they belonged to either a raccoon or possibly an opossum and another set that looked like they belonged to a turkey. 

Some key takeaways from this area were that it could possibly very interesting to study something with wolf spiders. We discussed possibly gathering the resources to rear wolf spiders. We also discussed possibly doing a study on bees where each of us could be assigned to chase a bee around! And most importantly, we decided that Marshall = Blathers.

Putah Creek Highlights:

Lots and lots of soapberry bugs as well as quite a few soldier beetles found here. And watch out for the poison oak! 

Homework:

• Add two questions to the spreadsheet
• Note: you do not have to fill out any of the other columns, just the question column
• Please fill out this google form nominating your question to be ranked in class
• R3 due 04/19
• Remember to keep up to date on readings!

Next Class (4/17):

Tentative schedule:

9:00 AM	Meet at Briggs classroom
9:05 AM	Debrief and discuss about the day
9:15 AM	Class ranking down to five ideas
10:00 AM	Split into small groups and decide on one topic
10:30 AM	Literature search on selected topic within groups
12:40 PM	Set agenda for next meeting

P.S. here's a picture of my cats from this morning just because😝