May 24, 2012

Location: UW Medicinal Herb Garden and the sports field outside UBNA

Coordinates:
Herb Garden - 47.6526666667, -122.3091666667
Sports field - 47.6592956158, -122.296001902

Weather: The day started out cloudy and rainy with almost 100% cloud cover but, gradually, the cloud cover reduced to about 30% and the temperature rose (which made me sad since I dressed for rain). The lighting was great by the time I got to the herb garden and there was little wind.

Habitat/Vegetation: The herb garden is full of native and non-native species and, since it is full of flowers this time of year and since the hive is near the greenhouses just across the street, it was no surprise to find the honey bee and its fellows buzzing around. There isn't a lot to say about the herb garden since it really isn't an area to go looking for observations typically. I just happened to catch this honey bee sitting still, so I wanted to take advantage of that. As for the sports field, it's just a barren stretch of grass with some small daisies growing here and there. There are trees flanking it's left side when one is standing in it facing the road, but that is the extent of the vegetation in that area. I only stopped because the swallows and starlings were too tempting to pass up.

General Comments: The barn swallows were the original reason I stopped in this field. I was leaving UBNA after natural history class and decided to cut through to get to the bus. I began to notice that, as I walked, the swallows would fly in circles around me and would even go as far as to get within inches of me before darting away again. I have no idea what they were doing, but it was really amazing to watch. I couldn't get a picture, but there were at least ten of them flying around me. It's almost as if they were trying to get me to leave, but I don't know. I saw a tree swallow among all the barn swallows, but I only managed to get a bad picture of one barn swallow as it swooped in front of me. The European starlings were hanging out in the field as well. There was an enormous flock of young starlings mixed with a few adults looking for food in the field. They made their harsh trilling noises incessantly the entire time they were there and I just had to stop and watch them for awhile since I had never seen such a large group before. I had also never seen a juvenile starling before this and I learned that they are brown with black beaks. I noticed a long juvenile making the trilling sound and was confused since I knew that only starlings made that noise, but also that starlings are usually black with orange beaks. I looked it up while I was watching the group and learned that I was looking at juveniles, which I thought was really amazing.

Species List:
Honey Bee (Apis mellifera)
Barn Swallow (Hirundo rustica)
European Starling (Sturnus vulgaris)

Posted on June 2, 2012 08:03 AM by tessaf