Projektin Boulder Field Ecology Course (ENVS 3100) Spring 2023 Päiväkirja

We arrived to: blue skies with some clouds, 43º, windy and slightly snowing. It was a dry landscape with sparse vegetation and many canine paw prints in the mud. I could hear prairie dogs alarm calling, with rapid high pitched chirps, as we got around 20 feet from the first hill. This landscape is representative of what the front range plains looked like around 200 years ago. Cattle simulate the effects of bison on the landscape, providing habitat for coyotes and prairie dogs. Prairie dogs are the main reason for the sparse vegetation in this ecosystem. Looking up, we saw many birds interacting with their own species and others: two bald eagles circled above a far hillside, a few robins scavenged in the dirt, a flock of mountain bluebirds flew past us to land on nearby sumac and yuccas, two red-tailed hawks pursued an adult bald eagle, and a red-tailed hawk circling with a juvenile bald eagle. It was a cold day, but interesting bird interactions and desert vegetation.

We started from SEEC and walked to the greenhouse. It was a sunny day, slightly windy, but mostly clear skies. We walked by the first pond and saw tons of ducks. Almost everyone had a pair of binos. We continued by another pond until we reached the bike path and followed it to the greenhouse. We spotted a few familiar species from our very first outing and some people were good at remembering the name. Nobody gave a presentation today.

Everything is still brown and I saw no wildflowers or anything blooming yet. However, some of the seedlings in the greenhouse were sprouting. We also went into a few of the other chambers before departing.

We began on the Marshall Mesa Trailhead in Boulder around 1:20. The weather conditions were sunny, slightly cloudy, and fairly windy. The temperature was around 53 Degrees. The hike was reasonably flat and is an area that was affected by the Marshall fires. Along the way we observed many plants including a Missouri foxtail cactus, a flowering plant that seemed to be in the geranium family, Great Plains yucca, currant/gooseberry plants, and milkweed. The currant plant was particularly interesting because it seems as if the plant was burned but the roots survived, allowing the plant to continue to grow. Many of the trees in this area were burned from the fires. Other interesting things that we saw were owl pellets, red-tailed hawks, a downy woodpecker, and harvest ant. Finally, we heard 3 presentations: bird migration, moose, and coyotes.

Joder Ranch Trail and Buckingham Park - February 16, 2023
Weather: sunny skies, fresh snow (snowed yesterday), slight wind, around 27 degrees F

We began our trip at Buckingham Park. Took a short stroll to the stream and did not find many any plants or animals that stood out.

We then walked throughout Joder Ranch Trail. There was a fair amount of snow covering the ground, though there were not many animal tracks to be found. Throughout the trail we spotted pine trees, yucca plants, aster plants, cacti, and different grasses. Near the end of the trail we spotted two different types of lichen on large rocks. We saw many different animals but I was unable to get pictures of them. We saw a red fox and were even able to see its den. The birds we saw were magpies, chickadees, and robins. There were plenty of deer around.

I just realized that I accidentally posted this to my personal journal a while back instead of the class journal so I am re-uploading it here

We arrived at Realization Point Trailhead around 1:15pm, partly cloudy, some wind and trails with little to no snow besides some icy spots. It is a forest and mountainous area filled with ponderosa pine and junipers. We took time for two presentations including Grey Horned Owls and Mountain Pine Beetles. We found an area with many birds flying from tree to tree and we identified some of the birds as Mountain Chickadee, Nuthatches, and Creepers. The Creepers were almost hoping up the tree bark and then would fly down from the top. Then we took time for the third presentation on Bobcats and after had silent observation time where the prompt was to relate the environment we were in to one that we thought was similar or had similar characteristic. On our way back to the cars we took time to look at the open view of mountains in the distance and then made our way back.