Observation #7

Site: Behind my house in a wooded area
Date: 5-28-08
Time of day: 6:45 am
Temperature: 43 degrees
Weather Conditions: Sunny
Wind Conditions: Calm
Soil Conditions: moist
Notes: All of the grass and leaves have now completely bloomed. The recent rain has given a boost to all of the fauna in my area. I saw the first yellow jacket of the year as it was feeding on a flower. The niche of these yellow jackets is to help pollinate all of the flowers to aid in reproduction. The welfare of the population of flowers is very dependent on the availability of yellow jackets and bumble bees. I also spotted a group of songbirds trying to scare off a raven that probably had gotten too close to their nest. Even though the raven was stronger than the songbirds, they were determined and eventually succeeded with their constant effort to scare it away. There was a group of deer hanging around our yard again. The group had two females and two young calfs that I noticed. They seemed interested in the salt block that is outside our house, but I never saw them actually begin to eat it. The trees seemed to have some sickness that was causing them to have large, unhealthy looking black patches. I will look into this and put it in my next observation.