maiawachtel's Journal

1. I found a flowering bush which was being pollinated by bumble bees.
2. There were a bunch of little termites (they my have been larvae, but I'm not sure) living in a dead pice of an oak root.
3. Lichen! I found lichen growing on a tree in the genus Aesculus.

I went to Aquatic Park in west Berkeley and found a lot of examples of spring! Most of the plants I found showed signs of new growth, characteristic of Spring. These included Cattails, Himalayan Blackberries, and what I believe were Mustard plants. I also found a pond covered in a later of green algae, another example of Spring growth. By far the most exciting observation, however, was a Pocket Gopher. I found a gopher hole and, when my camera flashed, the gopher popped up to fill in the opening with dirt. The result was a rudimentary time-lapse series of photos showing the gopher filling in its hole. This is an example of Spring in that in shows a gopher in the process of digging new gopher runs.

I went on a camping trip to Pinnacles National Monument and found a bunch of interesting plants. Unfortunately, I am unable to "associate" some of my photos with this post... they aren't showing up in the column to the right. BUT, all of the not shown observations can be seen on my "Observations" page!

1. Regular flowers: Yellow flowering plant (shown)
2. Irregular flowers: Yellow flowering plant in the Family Fabaceae (not shown)
3. Monocot: monocot leaf (shown)
4. Dicot: Sage (shown)
5. Pea Family: lupins (shown)
6. Gymnosperm: Pine (shown)
7. Terrestrial non-seed plant: Fern (shown)
8. Pinnate leaves: Maidenhair Fern (shown)
9. Opposite leaves: plant with opposite leaves (not shown)
10. Sunflower family: Yellow flowers in the sunflower family (shown)