A UVM blog Wonder Blog

Part 1: Basic Information

Today is Thursday, June 23, 2022. I went to my location at about 3:15 PM. The weather was partly cloudy, windy and 76 degrees.

Part 2: Description

I went into the woods behind my house next to Lake Cochituate in Natick, MA. I started by sitting on fallen log which was elevated above other parts of the woods and had a view of a cove in the lake. The log looked like it had been there a long time as it is rotting and has lots of little holes in it presumably from insects. There are green gray and white colors on parts of the log. As i take in my surroundings, I hear the constant singing and chirping of numerous different types of birds. I can also hear a distant loud car go by from the nearby Mass Pike. I also hear the occasional airplane or boat go by and sometimes a fisherman will stop in the cove for a while to fish. I occasionally hear the rustling of leaves from a nearby small animal. Today was a windy day so the breeze was constantly blowing the leaves of trees. I also can smell the fresh water lake which is a pleasant nostalgic scent for me because I spent a lot of time out on the lake swimming and fishing in my childhood. I’m elevated above the lake and the ground slopes down toward the lake all the way around the cove. I notice a few trees have fallen down around me, some of which have marks like from a beaver. There’s a very large tree near the water which a beaver had started to gnaw into but hadn’t taken down. Above me are towering trees and by my feet are small shrubs and plants which grew in separated groups but other parts of the ground have no plants and are covered by leaves and pine needles. There are also lots of medium sized rocks, more of which are near or in the waters edge. There is also some sand in the waters edge, as well as lots of decaying leaves and sticks.

Part 3: Image

Part 4: Questions

1. Why do insects tend to be under objects such as fallen trees and rocks?
2. Why does the elevation of the ground slope down toward the lake?
3. Where is the beaver that took down some of the trees?
4. Where is the beaver making a dam?
5. Are the birds affected by the nearby highway?
6. Why is there lots of lichen and moss on some trees but not others?
7. How does the beaver choose which trees to take down and which to leave alone?
8. Why are there so many rocks buried in the ground?
9. Why is the log discolored white, gray, light green, and dark green?
10. What caused this large tree to fall?
11. Why does the beaver take down some trees but not use them?
12. Why does moss accumulate at the base of some trees?
13. What is the most popular species of tree in this area?
14. Why is this the most popular species of tree?
15. Why do shrubs and small plants grow in separated groups?
16. Why do shrubs and small plants grow in in these particular spots but not other spots?
17. How are the organisms effected by human activity?
18. Why does lichen grow on some rocks but not others?
19. Where did all of these rocks come from?
20. Does the weather affect the frequency of bird calls?
21. Where did the lake come from? Was it caused by a glacier?
22. How long has Lake Cochituate existed?
23. How deep is the soil before it hits bedrock?
24. Has the slope of the ground become more pronounced over time?
25. Why have no flowers grown in this part of the woods?

Part 5: Research

So why did the beaver choose to take down some trees but leave others alone? Generally, beavers prefer deciduous trees over conifer, but not all are the same to them. They mainly choose willow, aspen, cottonwood, poplar, birch, oak, black cherry, alder, and apple trees. Generally their least favorites are conifers such as pine, fir, and spruce trees. Often beavers will sample some trees to tell if they like it by testing the scent and taste. They may keep going because they don’t have many other options or they will stop and not completely take down the tree. I don’t know what type of tree the one i saw partially gnawed through was, but I’m guessing that it wasn’t one of their preferred type of trees. I assume that after they gnawed through part of it, it realized that it wasn’t its desired type.

Sources

Pesaturo, Janet. “Tree Preferences of the Beaver.” Winterberry Wildlife, Winterberry Wildlife, 21 Nov. 2018, https://winterberrywildlife.ouroneacrefarm.com/2018/11/20/tree-preferences-of-the-beaver/. “What Beaver Eat.” Beaver Works Oregon, Think Wild, https://beaverworks.org/beaver-grocery-stores/#:~:text=Trees%20that%20make%20up%20the,them%20to%20their%20food%20stash.