Monday, September 26, 2011

Plants, Trees, and Flowers

Trees:
 
Ginkgo (Ginkgo Biloba)
 




Live Oak (Quercus virginiana)




Southern Magnolia (Magnolia grandiflora)
 



River Birch Tree (Betula nigra)
 



Willow Oak (Quercus phellos)
 




Plants:

Aloe Vera (Aloe vera)




Poison Ivy (Toxicodendron radicans)
 



Hosta (Undulata variegata)






 Elephant Ears (Colocasia esculenta)





Common Hawthorn (Crataegus monogyna)
 



Flowers:

Rhododendron (Rhododendron Catawbiense)




Zinnia (Zinnia angustifolia)



Angel's Trumpet (Brugmansia arorea)




Nandina (Nandina domestica)




Monkey Grass (Liriope spicata)





















Sunday, September 25, 2011

River Transect with Clam Data

This is a Google Earth image of part of the Ocmulgee River. In this lab we collected data in the river for how many clams were found in different sections of the river. The line segment across the river represents where we measured the depth of the river every ten feet. The graph below shows the depth.

 

Tuesday, September 6, 2011

The Atlantic Puffin


 
The Atlantic Puffin (Fratercula arctica) is a seabird species in the auk family. Also known as the Common Puffin, it is the only puffin species which is found in the Atlantic Ocean. They feed primarily by diving for fish, but also eats other sea creatures, such as squid and crustaceans. 
This bird is mainly black above and white below, with grey to white cheeks and red-orange legs. The bill is large and triangular and during the breeding season is bright orange with a patch of blue bordered by yellow at the rear.
This Atlantic Puffin breeds on the coasts of northern Europe, the Faroe Islands, Iceland, North America, and even within the Arctic Circle to northern Maine and France.
The population of puffins has started to decline. This may be due to increased predation by gulls and skuas, the introduction of rats, cats, dogs and foxes onto some islands used for nesting, contamination by toxic residues, drowning in fishing nets, declining food supplies, and climate change. I have always been interested in studying puffins ever since my childhood when I would visit my family in Alaska and see paintings of them in houses and museums, and read stories about them.

 


Scientific Classification:
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum:    Chordata
Class:        Aves
Order:       Charadriiformes
Family:     Alcidae
Genus:      Fratercula
Species:    F. arctica