Field Trip to the Arcata Marsh and Widlife Sanctuary

On the field trip to the Arcata Marsh and Wildlife Sanctuary, I was able to observe the pre-mating rituals of the Northern Shoveler. They were begining to pair and stick together while dabbling around the pond. I noticed the green-winged teals and the mallars were doing the same. The ruddies seemed as though they were begining but it seemed like the Buffleheads had no objective of finding a mate at that time. Far out in the bay, there were American Wigeon which I was not able to visualize because they were so far out they were not even identifiable to me.

Jeff lectured us about our field project and the type of methods we should use depending on our project. We, then, observed the behaviors of mallards in a high tide environment and attempted to hypothesize which food source they were obtaining from the freshly flooded grassland. Guesses consisted of invertebrates or seeds, still I am uncertain of what they were eating.

After, we went and looked at the fields for Canada geese. From here, we got to see their behavior such as preflight and aggressive behaviors. Although we didn't find any collars, we determined ways to count the flocks and the distance it would take in order to read the collar.

This field trip helped open up the waterfowl of Arcata, as well as introducing us to our projects as well as collection of the goose collars.