Habitat Trips
The two habitats that I observed were both in the Don Edwards Wildlife Refuge. Firstly, the majority of my trip was at the salt marsh ecosystem. The second part of my trip was spent hiking up the dry hillside across from the salt marsh. I had difficulties finding many animals besides birds, so the majority of my observations were plants. In the end, I thought the plants and birds were quite significant in illustrating adaptations to the niche.
The birds that I observed were mallard, dowitcher, and golden crowned sparrow. The most prominent adaptation in the dowitcher is the long beak. This beak helps it to get food from the salt marsh. It repeatedly pokes its beak in the marsh and catches tiny crustaceans, worms, etc. With some research, I found that many call this the “sewing machine” method of feeding. The golden crown sparrow stops over in the hillsides near the marsh during migration. I would imagine that they do this for avoiding predators. Lastly, the mallard is one of the most common ducks in the world, and it is able to survive in the salt ponds because of its flexible diet.
The main adaptation in the plants were evident in the leaves. The plants near the salt marsh had hard and pointy leaves. This suggests that this ecosystem does not have an abundance of rain, so the trees must be extra efficient with their water usage. Having rough hard leaves is a sign that the plants maintain water and not lose leaves from seasonal changes. Additionally, the plants have to adapt to the large amounts of salt. Thus, many of these plants have a mechanism which allows them to gain water and drain out excess salt. Lastly, the spikes in the leaves seem like a defensive adaptation against plant eating animals. In the hillside, some of the smaller plants have much softer leaves. This was a little confusing, but I reasoned that the small size of these plants allow them to be more flexible with water usage.
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