Quality Time with Nature
Today I went outside and spent exactly 21 minutes sitting in the grass of my backyard observing all of the abiotic (nonliving) and biotic (living) things around me. Why? Because this is what I had to do to complete my second assignment. And I know my backyard seems pretty boring, but I really was intrigued to see what I could really discover back there!When I sat down it was exactly 5:23pm and a cold wind was moving everything around me. I created an imaginary sphere around myself (as instructed to do for the assignment) and began observing.
The abiotic things around me that I could see were the following:
- Dirt/Soil
- 3 redish colored rocks
- 1 grey and black bird feather
- A ball (Milo's!)
- Sticks
- Power lines
- Lots of grass
- A few weeds
- 2 nats
- 2 nuts
- 1 baby peach tree
As I continued to sit there I looked up and saw a hummingbird land on a tree branch. This was a simple example of commensalism, which is an interaction that benefits one, but not so much the other. When the hummingbird landed on the tree branch, the tree was giving shelter and protection for the hummingbird, but the hummingbird in return was not giving the tree anything.
However, we usually see hummingbirds having a mutualistic relationship with flowers, meaning both species benefit each other. The flowers give nectar to the hummingbirds, and the hummingbirds unknowingly collect pollen and transfer it to the next flower. This just wasn't the type of interaction I saw unfortunately.
I watched it carefully and after about 15 seconds, the hummingbird flew off of the tree branch and to my surprise another hummingbird appeared! They twirled around in the air for a few seconds and then flew off together.
We don't see too many hummingbirds right now compared to in the summer. This is because there are less flowers, meaning less nectar for the hummingbirds to feed on. This is a called a limiting factor. With less food, the number of organisms in a population becomes less. In summer there will no longer be that limiting factor and we should see more!
After this I saw two sparrows fly by, followed by four crows. Though I'm not sure, the crows could have been chasing the sparrows (I've seen this many times before). Crows can actually be carnivorous predators - in other words they feed on mobile prey - and will work together to take down other birds! In this case, the sparrows could have fallen prey to the crows, creating a predator-prey relationship between the two species.
Then an interesting looking bird landed on the powerline above me. It was all black and looked like it had a fluffy head (I really have no idea what it was), but what was most interesting was its chirp. It almost sounded like "chip... chip... chip", very high pitched, and never changed. It flew around my house for the remainder of my quality time with nature, making that same noise, and I never heard any other birds reply with the same chirp. Maybe it was calling for a spring mate?!
At 5:44pm I grabbed my things and my fun with nature had ended. I do very much look forward to doing this again on my own time during a hike and also as the beach!
You should try it too. Honestly, sitting there quietly and just observing and listening can make even your backyard a very beautiful place.
