Duck Flats 5/12/2011

Duck Flats

Thursday May 12, 2011

5:30PM-8:30PM

56°F

Sunny with few clouds and light winds.

Plants:

Horsetail- Equisetum arvense

Cow Parsnip- Heracleum lanatum

Sitka Alder- Alnus sinuata

Fireweed- Chamerion angustifolium

Salmon berry –Rubus spectabilis

False Indian Corn- Veratrum viride

Willow – Salix sp. - (Possibly Barclay Willow because of the presence of the willow roses-Salix barlayi)

Pyrola- Pyrola americana

Stinging Nettles- Uritica dioica

Wild Celery- Angelica lucida

Yellow Skunk Cabbage- Lsyichiton americanas

Common Dandelion- Taraxacum officinale

Bedstraw- Galium boreale

Wild Iris- Iris setosa

Yarrow- Achillea millefolium

Shooting Star- Dodecatheon pulchellum

Rock Weed-Fucus vesiculous

Oak Fern-Gymnocarpium dryopteris

Ostrich Fern- Matteuccia struthiopteris

Goats Beard- Aruncus sylvester

Animals:

Porcupine- Erethizon dorsatum

Mallard- Anas platyrhynchos

Gadwall- Anas strepera

American Widgeon- Anas americana

Soft Shell Clam- Mya arenaria

Arctic Turn- Sterna paradisaea

White Wing Scoter- Melanitta fusca

Barnacles- Balanus spp.

Even though I have lived in Valdez this trip was my first opportunity to explore the duck flats. I can already tell that having evening field trips will be nice because the sun isn’t too high in the sky and it’s generally cooler at that kind of day. I’m excited to identify more organisms and the identifying process is a lot more interesting than I had expected it would be. This semester should be very interesting and I am looking forward to discovering things have always are always here but I never noticed.