Thank Goodness its not November

I was driving up to my spot this week when I noticed a rustling of bushes outside my driver-side window. Upon further inspection I saw it was a turkey! This was at 12:30 on a Monday afternoon, next to a main road in Saugus aptly named main St.  I attributed my sighting to deforestation. However it did make me wonder where turkeys live?

 

 

 I found out that turkeys actually sleep in trees. Even though they cannot fly, they use the tops of hills to glide into trees. Chickens will actually do the same thing. The birds do this as protection from prey. I hope to one day see a turkey in a tree, I think it would make for a great photo opportunity.

As i sit outside this week I'm looking around and my eyes were drawn upward towards the beautiful sky(plus i was dozing off). as i looked up at the newly budded trees i saw a bunch of these:



I know they are squirrel nests but after hearing about how some birds build their nests with their own saliva i was interested in finding out how squirrels build theirs.

thanks to West Virginia Wildlife magazine i now know.

I was informed that most tree squirrels build leaf nests. The more fortunate ones find a hollow in a tree someplace high up to call home. i was surprised to find out that most leaf nests will be found at least 20 feet off the ground. they do this mostly for protection.

The squirrels will loosely weave sticks in a round formation and pack the outer part of it with wet leaves and moss. they will allow that to harden, then they pack the inside with dry leaves and grass. the need the inside to be soft and supple so when they give birth the babies are comfortable. one would think that the nests would be flimsy but they are not. people who have evicted squirls have noted the sturdiness of there nests.

Taking it all in

I don't have much time to relax due to the busy nature of my life. However I did have a half hour this week in complete reflection.

I chose to hang out outside on Monday and Tuesday of this week and the weather was fantastic!

I was sitting against a tree contemplating what to write about when I had an epiphany. This blog is not all about writing about sciencey stuff and connecting lecture with real life, it's about getting outside.

Most of my days consist of traveling from one building to another so I don't get to appreciate things like birds chirping, or the rustling of dead leaves in the breeze. However for a few minutes this week I afforded myself the opportunity to relax, forget about work, or research papers and actually relax.

I apologize for not taking any snapshots this week, but this half hour outside was all about me.

So.. The verdict is in

So, the past few posts have been about a supposed lichen that i found while wandering around outside of my local YMCA. the major question has been, is this a sweet blue lichen or paint?

Roughly twenty four hours ago i posted a picture of the substance in question on inaturalist.org. within an hour there was a response from "rockerboo".  Rockerboo gave an opinion that differs from mine, but I'm not an expert, he/she had many posts and was kind enough to try and help me, so we will go with it. Rockerboo said "The lichen looks like a green shield, and the blue looks like paint". At this time no other comments have been posted.

I wont deny being disappointed, i really wanted to find some new species that i could give some funky name too. Oh well maybe next time.

The circle of lichen

So, I got out ahead of the weather to snap a better picture of my fancy blue lichen. I have examined it thoroughly and am more confident then ever that it is lichen. However, if anybody has the website where I can submit my picture to the lichen-heads I would appreciate it, I neglected to take it down. Anyhoo here are the pictures, tell me your thoughts.

Lichen or Finger paint?

This week i spent about five minuets a day roaming the woods in search of more blue lichen. My concern is that children to frequent the area and what i think is lichen could be finger paint! At our fearless leaders behest i researched images of lichen fruiting bodies and could not locate an image that was quite the color of my supposed lichen. this is the closest i could find:

Lichen videos, photos and facts - Fulgensia fulgida - ARKive

Here is a closeup image of the lichen in question. you be the judge.

Hi. It's me again

Hi everyone out there in the blogisphere, the snow has finally abated and science related stuff is popping up everywhere.

I'm at the YMCA nearly every day. this is where i workout and play basketball. there is also gorgeous reservation land surrounding their property. this is where i have chose to poke around for sciency stuff.

This week I found a few interesting things for you. I found them so interesting that I snapped a picture of them.

The first is a picture of a trail runners nightmare. This Is a massive system of tree roots. They almost make something like a staircase.

The second is some sweet blue lichen. Blue lichen is not uncommon, but is not usually found in suburban areas.

The third picture harkened us back to the "tree bike", it is a picture of a pin tree seemingly growing out of a boulder.

I love the comments I've been getting on my blog, keep them coming. I hope to keep you guys mildly entertained for the duration of the semester. Happy Blogging!

Getting Down to Business

Hey guys. I'm staying true to the title of this post and "getting down to business". I took a few more pictures for this week. I feel that they go well with some of the topics we have discussed in lecture.

The snow has started to recede and more of the beautiful landscape can be seen.

Check out the first two pictures. The first picture is of a lichen forest engulfing a rock. Without discussing this topic in class I would have never noticed it. The second picture is again a patch of lichen on a rock formation. I liked this example due to the bright coloration of the lichen.

The third picture is of a stand of birch trees. Check out the shoots that are sprouting from the base of them. As we learned in class, birch trees love to sprout that way if not maintained by human hands.

I feel like this post is much more Sciencey than my first post. Yay me!

Thanks for checking this out.

Intro to an amateur blogger

This is my introduction to blogging. I fully admit to being technologically deficient. However I intend not to bore the crap out of you guys for the next few months.

The content of this blog will be related to the area surrounding my local YMCA. i chose this spot due to the fact that a spend quite a bit of the Y. I hope to venture into the woods once the snow melts. This particular area is special to me because i spent much of my childhood roaming  these woods as a member of camp Sachem.



I ate many peanut butter and jelly sandwiches on that rock formation.

I hope to post many much more insightful things than this introduction. 

Please disregard the power lines in the video and photos, i hope to advance into the woods once the snow melts. Thanks for checking out my blog!