A UVM blog wonderblog

July 9th, 2024

I wanted to view my sight from a new angle, from above. I have had a drone but never used to to take videos in this sort of way. I wanted to push myself and learn how to make “cinematic” videos to capture my sight. It was very new to me trying to take slow and smooth videos, while also trying lots of different angles from high up, to just above the water in order to capture the whole area. I originally was just going to use my phone to make a “cinematic” video of the area, but with the drone I was able to learn something new and capture it from a new angle. In regards to the sight, I learned that the marsh is much bigger than I thought, and extends back a long ways towards the ocean. So using my drone I was able to discover that the sight is completely different from what i had anticipated the first couple of wonder blogs.

The video Quality may be not great, due to the site only allowing small attachments so i had to reduce the quality.

Location: kayak launch next to marsh Freeport Maine.

Date: July 2nd 2024, 1:00pm

Weather: sunny, 82 degrees and some clouds with low winds.

Notes: When I arrived i could tell that the area seemed a little dryer and less vibrant green like before. It has been super dry the past week so that could have something to do with it. Because there was hardly any wind there were a lot more insects, small and large around the area. There were a few dragonflies, and butterflies flying over the marsh. They were further away so I couldn’t get any pictures or see anything up close, but overall there was much more bug activity than the first two visits. As far as everything being dryer, the large puddle from before in the middle of the path had dried up quite a bit leaving the trail all muddy but less water.

Why question: why are there little bubbles coming out from the mud underneath the surface of the puddle every couple minutes.

Answer: It is Marsh Gas. It is a mixture of mostly methane and smaller amounts of hydrogen sulfide, carbon dioxide that is created naturally in some sorts of marshes or swamps. The process of it bubbling up and out is called ebullition, and is one of few ways that methane from decomposed organic matter can escape the ground.

Taking pictures had me zoom out a bit and look at the whole site and what larger images i could take to capture the whole site, while also taking a few close ups that captured the smaller features of the marsh. with drawing it was harder to draw the landscape of the marsh without it just looking like a field, so it was easier to capture the larger picture on camera.

I really enjoyed taking pictures more than the drawing because I was able to get a better image and portray the area better than drawing. It was also cool comparing drawing things like the cattail to photographing it.

June 27th 2024

Location: kayak launch near a marsh freeport maine

Time and weather: 3:00pm sunny and warm some clouds and partly windy

Something I noticed: there wasn’t much happening different from before hand, but i did notice a mouse, run across the muddy part of the trail and run under one of the few rocks in the area. i looked behind the rock and there was a little burrow that was definitely the mouse’s home. Other than birds and insects this was the only animal I had seen so far.

Species I identified:

Timothy Grass (Phleum pratense): found in most of northern europe and new england. it prefers a wetter area with poor drainage, so it makes sense i found it near the marsh. Interesting fact: Timothy grass is a very popular grain to use in small animal feed such as rabbits guinea pigs and other small animals. the process of finding it, i brought a strand home, and found a website by UMaine that had a list of all the “grasses” in maine that included pictures and descriptions.

sketches:

I liked the sketching, it made me try to find fascinating things to sketch, but also made me look closer at them while sketching to notice things like how the branches bend and how the grass stands compared to other plants.

Something I would like to follow up on is the mouse hole, and see if I can find any other animals in the area, or footprints in the mud from larger animals.

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Blog #1

Thursday, June 20th, 2024, 3:00pm.

Weather: hot, about 90 degrees, partly cloudy and very humid.

The site: it is a small secluded kayak launch 5 minutes from my house. It is a marshy section of land with a small cement, then dirt/clay road to the edge of the water for kayak and canoe launching. the water is a small stream that leads into the ocean nearby. few smaller trees towards the road entrance but mostly marsh grasses cover everything. There are many birds in the area, but not many other animals other than insects are present due to it being very marshy. It smells like a marsh, with hints of ocean smell. there are birds chirping evrywhere and the occasional buzz of a insect. The grass is about a foot to two feet tall and covers the whole extent of the marsh.

1. Questions:
2. what bird is the tall one with long neck
3. how many different types of insects are tehre in marsh
4. is the water at all salty from ocean
5. what is marsh grass called
6. where do the birds sleep
7. how fast does the water erode the sides of river
8. where do the bugs sleep
9. what are the birds saying
10. do bird species interact or avoid
11. how dfifferent would this look if tides didnt effect the area
12. whats the highest the water level has been
13. why are there no trees in marsh
14. why are there no rocks in the area
15. what do the taller birds eat
16. how many fish species are in the river
17. are fish species salt or freshwater
18. why does the river wiggle around so much in the marsh
19. how stable is the ground in the middle of the marsh
20. how many types of animals live here i can’t see
21. can larger mammels walk across the marsh or is it too soft?
22. how do storms affect the homes of animals living right next to river when it rises
23. what did the area look like 50 years ago
24. what would happen if the river dried out, would the marsh also change?
25. how come so little other plant species are in the marsh
26. where do the migrating birds come from
27. what does the ground look like 5 feet underneath

question to research: why are there no trees in the marsh.

answer: it is far to salty for most plants or animals to live in is the whole reason. marshes and swamps are completely different, marshes have no trees and the grasses are the tallest plant usually in a marsh. this is a tidal marsh, therefor it helps to protect storms, provide safe place for nesting and migratory birds (hence why so many birds in area) “https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/marsh/”

Final paragraph:

Wrapping up, something that really caught my attention was the birds activity. there were a large number of different bird species in the area from tiny quic little birds to taller “marsh birds” and even eagles and crows. they all seemed to use the area the same amount, but never really interacted much. the only interaction i saw was an eagle messing with a smaller bird, but that only lasted a few seconds. So next time I want to look at the bird species interactions with each other more.