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Teachers in the Field |
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Teachers in the Field |
January 23, 2002
| Every morning here the weather has been different. We expected fog today, but it was partly cloudy and it only got nicer as the day wore on. We left at 9 and had a full day surveying. My job was to complete the Dolphin Survey Report so my hands were busy. I didn't have the freedom to snap the photos that I usually take. Mrs. Rydgren helped me along with GPS readings. We had 9 sightings! A couple of times we saw a pair of dolphins, but they disappeared! Amazing how far they can swim with one breath. |
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Look very closely at the dolphin on the right. We saw something very unusual. The water was shallow here and Lasagna (yes, indeed, the dolphin's name is Lasagna) had snatched up a stingray from the sandy bottom and was tossing it up in the air. Lasagna would catch it again and then retoss it. I guess Lasagna wasn't taught by his mother not to play with his food! |
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You have to get out your magnifying glass again
and look carefully at the mix of birds on this sandbar off of Longboat
Key. It is very shallow in this area and our boat couldn't get closer
for a better picture, and besides we'd scare off all the birds and we didn't
want to do that.
Do you spy the lone pink flamingo in the midst of the brown and white pelicans and cormorants? |
| I love a good story and this is one! This flamingo escaped from Sarasota Jungle Garden theme park during a storm and ended up on this little sandbar. It has been living there now for about a year and very successfully. It never leaves the sandbar. It has friends to huddle with and seemingly plenty of food as well. It is accepted by this community of birds and the Jungle Garden is going to leave the little flamingo there. Mote Research boats, like our own Dolphin survey boat, go by frequently and check up on the flamingo. | |
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In between our sightings I started thinking about the ecology of Sarasota Bay. There is such an abundance of wildlife in the bay and it is all interdependent. Look at the two birds on the left, the brown pelican and the great blue heron. What is their diet? |
| Fish! Judging by the fishermen I saw in
their boats there must be a lot of good fish in these waters.
Look closely once again at the photo on your right. I took it looking down into the shallow water. We were over a grassy bed. Turtle grass and eelgrass are safe places for little fish to hide from predators, munch on grassy leaves and lay their eggs. Without the littler fish, like mummichogs, killifish, silversides, mullet, pinfish and pigfish, the bigger fish and mammals, like dolphins would starve or have to go elsewhere.. |
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Florida fishermen |
The Brown Pelican depends on the fish of the bay. |
| In Sarasota Bay you can see the dark patches of the grassy beds beneath
the blue waters. They are very important and along with plankton
form the foundation of the food chain. First come the plants, then
comes the animal kingdom.
Do you know what plankton is? |
Minnows and other fish that inhabit the grassy beds |
Osprey nest Do we have ospreys in Rhode Island? What do they eat? |
The manatee is a plant-eater. |
Crab pots are plentiful around Sarasota Bay. What kind of bouys and pots do we find in our Narragansett Bay? |
Sarasota restaurants are famous for stone crab dishes. |
Sarasota Bay - Narragansett Bay
The food chain becomes a great web of chains, all intermingled and
crisscrossing.
The more you look, the more you see!
Have a great day!
Mrs. Johnson
contact
ride1034@ride.ri.net