Observation #3

Wednesday May 14, 2008
Site: The Cotenwood Park Pond
Time: 6:10PM
Temperature: Cold. I'm sure of the exsact temperature
Weather: Raining slightly and very very overcast and darkish
Soil: The soil is pretty moist

Today when I went to my site, it was very cold and rainy, so I don't stay that long. Everything looked very similar to how it had looked on monday, except that everything was covered with a thin layer of moisture. It was very beautiful out. Nothing had changed with the buds in the trees. Thy looked the same. They were a little bit wilted, but still alive and biotic. There was a population of the black birds, which I found out are called starlings. They eat fruits and bugs by "open-bill probing" and stisking their bills into the ground which I got to observe them doing. The were eating around my pond and actually in the dry bottom of the pond. The pond is STILL dry, which is rather anoying because when it does fill with water, I believe that I will be able to observe biodiversity and predator and prey interactions more. Upstream, the water was flowing alot, and it really surprised me that it had not yet reached the pond. Back to the starlings. As I was observing them, something very strange happened. One bird kinda turned upsidown and clicked it's tail feather together really fast and a hoarse deep nosie came from it. I tryed to inch closer to see what he was doing, but they flew away. As I listened, I relized that I could hear more of the deep croaking noise, much deeper that they usual chirps of the black birds. I wonder what that means and what the bird was doing. I think it may have something to with the mating season, maybe. Anyway, it was really weird and I could not get closer to observe him, which was a total disapointment. I looked around some more after the black bird incident, and realized that there was lichen trying to grow on a rock!!! Primary succession was happening rightin my ecosystem! Also, there was new dark green grasses growing out of the bottom of the pound, and they were not there on Monday. The grass is biotic and freshly growing. I wounder what the heck the birds were doing, though.