nataliebee's Identifications

in relatively shady area, appears to be planted as it is near human development, planted in the ground, temperature is cool
adaptation- If the river birch sheds its bark it is able to grow larger.
species- river birch

1. Saw M and F geese around 10am on bottom of hill to walk up to Ramapo College
   They were in cloudy area, not very windy but still a cold morning, not much moisture in the air. There were still small piles of leftover snow near them which they didn’t mind. They were walking around the grass and searching for food and eating insects. Organisms nearby are trees like conifers and regular trees with leaves, squirrels, and chipmunks.

2. An adaptation for the Canada Goose is their down feathers. These feathers help to keep them warm and protect the geese from the cold. If geese were to have very fluffy down feathers, they are more likely to survive the changing seasons and therefore would make a great choice for a mate. Especially if they were able to get through harsh winters which means the babies it reproduces would most likely also survive multiple seasons and the change in seasons.

This species is known as a bluegill. Based off of my fishing experience, this fish only stays in dark, green algae water where there is no to minimum sunlight. This may be due to its physical adaption to the environment, so that it may stay hidden from other prey in the environment.

All images: located at Ramapo College of New Jersey

Where did I see the species?
1st Image: chipmunk located on top of the rocks right in back of the Archway Ceremony area which is behind of the Academic Complex Wing C building. The chipmunk had its head peaking out to spot me, but the picture was taken very quickly since a few seconds after chimpmunk left to hide.

2nd image:
Same chipmunk had ran from the rocks to the soil underneath the rocks where many plants could be found. The image is an image of its back side since the chimpmunk was trying to hide underneath the plants. It was very much afraid of me.

3rd image: I wanted a side view of the chipmunk and was able to get a semi clear image of the species as it was trying to run away from the area since it saw me as a predator. The chipmunk was very alarmed and I did keep a good distance from it that way it wouldn’t be so afraid as to use attack methods to protect itself from me. The chipmunk was at the same location as it was in the second image.

What I saw? I saw a chipmunk in which I believe it is the species called “Genus Tamias.” The chipmunk was small and it could be picked up by a human hand. The chipmunk was an adult chipmunk, the sex of the chipmunk is unknown (could not observe the species to that extreme because it kept running away). The chipmunk had a furry coat with the color of light brown throughout its body and a bright red orange color towards the lower back end of the specifies. The specifies also has dark brown striped that go from the chest down to the lower end and the stripes were parallel (one to left side and one to right side). The trail was very thin, small and furry. The species resembled a squirrel, but it was not a squirrel and instead it was a chipmunk and I knew that because of the color coat (light brown with a little bit of redness instead of grey), size of the species, where the species was located (Lower ends of the atmosphere, meaning it didn’t go very high, most high was the rocks but mostly stayed on the soil of the plants and squirrels usually like to be in very high places such as trees), and also tail (chipmunk’s tail was small, think and had the same fur texture as body whereas squirrels have a long tail and the texture fur of their tail is different from body, it is more frizzy and puffed out).

• When I took this picture the sun cleared up and it was a little more on the warmer side compared to the last couple of days.
• There was a lot of shading from the trees as I was in the woods but sunlight peeking whenever the trees would sway from the wind.
• The animal was by the bushes, close to a trail I was on walking along the ground.
• I was unable to see any other deer, but I assumed they were probably close by since they usually travel in groups of 4 to 5.

I believe that the color of it’s body is an adaptation as it is a form of defense. This protects it from predators where they can easily hide and be hidden by trees which are similar colors. For example, if there is a predator nearby with bad eyesight the deer may be mistaken for a huge amount of trees among one another.

Looking closely at the deer I would assume it’s a white tailed deer. I was unable to get any closer to look as I didn’t want to scare it away as they jump when they get too close to humans. The ears and coating of a white tailed deer are very close to the images when I looked it up. Based on the lack of antlers, I would say this is a female white tailed deer.