Observation 2

Site: In front of my house/ a pond
Date: May 6, 2008
Time: 8:01 pm
Temp: 59.9 degrees F
Weather: Some blue sky but mostly cloudy, no wind, clouds to NE looked like rain clouds
Soil: In the water, VERY wet/muddy, soil next to water is damp, but everywhere else is really dry
Hypothesis: Ducks on the pond and are eating things under water?(grasses, or bugs?) Answer in report

At my observation site there are many types of grasses around the pond and some types of trees and bushes. But none of the willows have buds on them and they haven't bloomed at all. Since there are numerous species of grasses and they are all over, they increase the biodiversity around the pond. Also because there are a ton of grasses for animals to eat, there is no competion for food and no animals will die because one of their survival needs are gone. The population of ducks and geece have a daily appointment with the pond. They hang out in the muddy areas and hang over the sides to eat.Both ducks and geece eat a lot of vegitation such grasses under water and above. They also eat little insects that live in the pond. They both interact with each other but the ducks at the pond during my observation were interacting with each other. The male and the female ducks were both eating but the female was pigging out and the male was rarely putting his head down. The male was very contious and was looking over the female. He saw me and protected her from me. Another thing I noticed was that the ducks were only staying in the grassy area and they weren't going into the water. Sometimes it was really hard to see the female. The male has a green head and a white body and he is usually pretty easy to see. But the female was using one of the anti-predator adaptions. She camoflauges really well with the grasses and it doesn't even look like she is there when she is laying in the grasses. Although ducks are on the bottom of the food chain because they only eat grasses and insects, the one thing below them are insects. There are water spiders floating in the water and the ducks eat them too. Some things I heard were running, water ducks making little noises, there were other birds chirping and the ducks swimming in the water. Some of the smells were the smell of fire because someone was burning. Some sights I saw were duck tracks in mud, lots of green grass, little pines around pond and there were also some willows.