A UVM blog wonderblog

Welcome to UVM Blogs. This is your first post. Edit or delete it, then start blogging!

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.