Habitat Trips
The first kind of habitat that I observed, although in two separate locations, was a saltwater habitat. One, in Redwood Shores, is a very odd habitat, seeming "unatural"in many ways. This salt water way is in between many large corporate buildings as well as houses. It appears to be a man made waterway, mostly existing for appearances. Regardless of being man made or not, this salt water brings many different species to it, and while I was out there watching my teammates race (the Cal women's crew team), I was able to snap a few pictures of some birds. One is very difficult to see since the zoom on my iphone is not great, but hopefully I can get some good IDs on these so they are research grade. In addition, floating almost right next to my foot, was a relatively large jellyfish. These animals can not exist without salt water. Jellyfish seem to always live in salt water, usually warm water from what I understand. So although Northern California is not known for its warm swimming water, this man made waterway closer to the bay than the ocean must have been warm enough for it. In addition, these animals all need to eat. The birds can easily get dinner from within the salt water, and I assume the jellyfish can too (though I don't know what jellyfish eat). The second group of birds, which I found in Crissy Field during the Nat Geographic bioblitz, live near salt water as well. Similar to the other birds, they have salt water food sources and must be near salt water. They also all have the capability to walk and waddle, and some are able to swim. This must be an adaptation due to living near water. It is unlikely that birds living in the desert would be great swimmers.
The secon habitat I observed was Tilden Regional Park, about a day after some serious rain had come. Everything ws very green, much greener than I had been accustomed to this season during the drought. I imagine that the plants, lichen, and bug can't exist in a dry area, such as the desert, and would not be green without water, as they weren't very green until it rained. This part of Tilden has access to both water and sunlight, and as a result these plants have adapted: brown and dry without the rain, but very green after rain.
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