Bio Lab Foxcroft Farms Week 2
When we arrived at the location of our biocube, we immediately noticed that it was destroyed beyond repair. With pieces missing and the bars mangled, it appeared as though some manner of creature took offense to its presence and viciously attacked it. That or a snapping turtle was curious and chewed on it for a bit. Although our Biocube did reach an unfortunate end, I still believe that the location in which it was placed was well-decided. As a continued exploration of the area (sans mutilated biocube) revealed a wide array of insects burrowed within the upper layers of mud in the small stream the larger swamp is connected to. We discovered these specimen by employing an age-old technique that has been developed and passed down for generations, poking the mud with a stick and hoping something happens. While we did this, we immediately noticed that bubbles began to arise from within the mud clouds, and we had hoped to see some frogs emerge from the mud. Unfortunately, said mud cloud obscured our view of anything that might have appeared and the only reason we even caught some insects was because one of my group mates was randomly moving a net in the water hoping to catch something. But, regardless of the inefficient and somewhat questionable techniques employed, our findings confirmed to our group that the swamp IS thriving with biodiversity, we just have to try harder to find it.
During our 15 minutes of silence, I sat on a fallen log and listened to the songs of various birds, some familiar and some not. The frog I was able to just faintly hear last week was absent, but while I was surveying the swamp in all it's glory I noticed a bird right in front of us! I immediately whispered-yelled to the groupmate closest to it to take a picture while I also did so. I had hoped that at least one of us could get a decent picture (as it was fairly far away), but this hope was soon dashed after we compared photos. Fortunately, my picture was just clear enough for the iNaturalist system to identify the bird as an Agelaius, which upon further investigation seems to be correct. In addition, near the conclusion of our lab period, my group and I were treated to the rare sight of a duck! I attempted to pursue the specimen on foot for a picture, but the terrain and the duck's superior speed worked against me and I was unsuccessful. Luckily another (or the same, both had grey bodies and a green head) duck passed by as we were about to leave and one of my groupmates was able to photograph it.
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