ERS 346 Outing #1

Time and Date 2019/09/16; 1500
Duration 62 minutes
Location Columbia Lake

Weather 20͒ C, light breeze, no-precipitation, full cloud cover
Habitat/Vegetation type Lake, Wetland, Forested Area

Narrative: Coming out of the car we heard bluejays chirping in the trees by the shore of Columbia Lake. Walking down to the lake we moved under some willow trees and through thick patches of goldenrod. We spotter two birds of prey soring at a high altitude, they were too far off to get a positive ID. When we got to the water there were two blue dragonflies mating. Across the lake, we could see a Blue Heron who was standing still feeling some vibes by the shore. Sadly it flew away when we tried to get a closer look. There was a group of Honey Bees collecting pollen and nectar from some daisies. As we walked along the lake, we saw some small mammal prints in the mud, these were likely from a Raccoon. We simultaneously saw four Gulls and heard a Killdeer call. Across the lake, from our new location, there was a large flock of gulls(around 150) and amongst them was one Great Egret. Swimming in the opposite direction from them were three Double-crested Cormorants. We kept moving along the bank and entered a wooded area where we passed a large active anthill and a fuzzy white caterpillar later identified as a Hickory Tussock Moth. There was small to medium mammal poop with seeds in it under a white pine tree. Deeper in the wooded area we found some hallow bird bones later identified as some kind of gull. The bones were somewhat scattered and we only found a handful of them including part of the beak. On the way back to the car we spotted two more herons on the lake, one was preening himself and looking for snacks. Right before ending our hike our path was quickly crossed by a half foot long Guarder Snake who hid when he saw us coming.

Observations:
The observation links are found on Kayla Caruso's page from her journal entry dated the same day.
Bluejays: Kayla had the previous knowledge of this call for the ID
Goldenrod: This is a plant we both recognized
Blue Heron: This is a bird we both recognized
Honey Bees: I worked with honey bees over the summer and was able to positively ID them on sight
Racoon Foot Print: We looked up tracks to get an estimation, it fit the size and shape.
Gulls: This is a species we were both familiar with
Killdeer: Kayla recognized this species from her work bird banding this past summer
Great Egret: I thought this was a swan from far away, but Kayla recognized it as a Great Egret
Double-Crested Cormorants: Kayla also knew this species from her summer work
Hickory Tusick Moth: This was identified on I-Naturalist after the observation was posted
Guarder Snake: This is a species we both recognized

Posted on December 2, 2019 09:38 PM by mears mears

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