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.