meganwaskom's Journal

Today we learned about squirrels on the UW campus, as well as different species of squirrel. The tour began with the group showing us a video of squirrels and their behavior on campus, including their feeding practices and human interactions. All of the squirrels filmed were friendly to humans and accepting of the food given to them. They showed how they climb and move, and how squirrels from outside the campus behave differently in the presence of humans, and are a lot less chubby.
The tour continued with some of the mounts from the Burke museum, which showed different species of squirrel and chipmunks from the state and beyond. We also had the chance to feed some of the squirrels up on north campus, which was actually really fun.
Then my group ran the butterflies, moths, skippers, beetles and bees tour, which I think went really well but I didn't get here about the other stations as I was busy with the butterfly station.

I went to Schmitz Park for my final, and in my physical journal I have detailed a more general naturalist account on the park itself. I observed many species on the ground floor of the park, as this park does have an under-story and ground-covers of mostly native and restored species. I was surprised to find lichen in the park, but I was able to find at least three different species in the park, most of which were low on the trees and very sparse. The presence of fungi along with the presence of lichen are good indicators of a healthy forest, as well as the presence of nurse trees and new growing species that are starting to grow berries and flowers. It is important in a forest surrounded by city pollution that there are indicators of health and growth within the species.
A lot of species were in abundance, including skunk cabbage, ferns, mosses and tall buttercups. A lot of the plants were beginning to grow berries and spread seeds, as exampled by the common dandelions in the area, which had shed their flowers in favor of spreading seeds, as well as flowers blooming to begin pollination. I saw a few bees and flies, but as the weather was so cold today it was a rare occurrence. It was 52 degrees, with a wind chill, light rain and and complete cloud cover.