1. Benchmark, part 1 Observation Record Environmental Science
Example done by
Mr. Rude

2. Student Name: David Rude
Date: October 5, 2012
Start Time: 7:00 AM End Time: 8: 45 AM
Location of observation: Lake Cablero, Rancho Murieta 
Temperature (approximate): 66 degrees
Cloud cover: a variety of clouds (see images next page)
Humidity: 35% (according to weather.com)
Wind: a slight, cool breeze came from the east

3. Stratocumulus clouds 2’000 to 6’500 feet elevation

4. General Description of the Environment (include soil type, plants, and animals)
Plant Types (write detailed descriptions of each). Include pressed flower or leaves for extra points!
Ground covers – lots of short and tall grasses and a variety of small plants
Grasses - lots of grasses, all
are now dead/brown and have
gone to seed. Chaparral grasses .
  California fescue

5. Flowers – there were no flowers seen
Flowers – there were no flowers seen. It is very late in the season and any flowers are now dead and producing seeds.
Shrubs – a variety of shrub-like plants. Cattails in the lake.
Also, Chamise and Yerba Santa.
  Trees – Digger Pines, live oaks and blue oaks

6. Plants, continued
Crustose
Lichen

7. Animal Types (write detailed descriptions of each that you see) Include photos or drawings of animals for extra points!  
Fish: I saw small and medium bass and blue gills in the lake.
Reptiles: It was early so reptiles (ectothermic or cold-blooded) were still sleeping, but I did see one young Gopher Snake on the side of the trail and one Garter Snake below the trees by the lake.
Gopher Snake
Garter Snake

8. Insects – I saw grasshoppers, small moths and two California tortoise-shell butterflies by the lake.

9. Birds: (Include any feathers you might find for extra points)
Birds: (Include any feathers you might find for extra points)
I saw a red-tailed hawk, swan, geese, mallard ducks, a grebe and a red-winged blackbird. 
Tundra (whistling) Swans Red-Tailed Hawk
Red-Winged Blackbird

10. Mammals: (Include any tracks you might make copies of for extra points
I saw one cottontail rabbit and many deer and founds tracks and evidence of and saw tracks of raccoons, black-tailed jack rabbits, black-tailed deer, pocket gopher, gray fox, bobcats and mountain coyote. Raccoon track Gray fox track

11. Coyote scat Gray fox scat
Black-tailed deer Evidence of eaten bird

12. Rocks and Minerals - Describe the rocks –types, sizes, etc
Rocks and Minerals - Describe the rocks –types, sizes, etc. and minerals, if any, you see.
(Include small samples, too, for identification and extra points.) Lots of quartz, sandstone, granite, shale, slate, and others.

13. Interactions
Describe one example of a niche for one of the organisms you observed.
An ecological niche is mode of existence that a species has within an ecosystem.
Essentially it is the sum of all activities and relationships a species has while obtaining and using the resources needed to survive and reproduce.
Mule deer

14. A species' niche includes:
a. Habitat - where it lives in the ecosystem b. Relationships - all interactions with other species in the ecosystem c. Nutrition - its method of obtaining food.

15. Niche of Black-Tailed Mule Deer
These deer adapt to living in different places by being active during the warm weather at night or during the early morning hours. They also have adapted to eating a wide variety of vegetation types in order to meet all of their nutritional needs.
Mule deer can be found throughout desert or valley regions as long as there is enough vegetation to hide in and to eat. They will move to higher elevations during the hottest parts of the summer and move to lower elevations during the winter months. They also are found in mountain forests, wooded hills and in chaparral.

16. Mule deer eat a variety of vegetation
Mule deer eat a variety of vegetation. They are known to eat mesquite leaves and beans, fairy duster, jojoba, cat claw, buck bush and other shrubs and grasses.
Humans, coyote, mountain lion, eagles, bear, wolves, and bobcats..
Mule deer will make temporary "beds' which are usually nothing more than flattened areas of grass or leaves. If it is an area they use often, then they will use their hooves to scratch a level depression into the earth.
Mule deer usually live 9-11 years in the wild and can live to be much older when in captivity.
These deer range from feet tall at the shoulder, feet long and have a tail that is inches long. they can weigh between pounds. The female deer are smaller than the male.

17. Example One
Describe at least two examples of interactions you have studied. Examples: predation, competition (intraspecific or interspecific competition), symbiosis, parasitism, commensalism, mutualism.
Here is an example of an interaction, specifically predation. A mammal, fox or coyote or a hawk, attacked and ate this bird.

18. Example two
Parasitism – it is a well-known fact that ticks feed on the blood of deer. I found two ticks on my dog after our 90 minutes in the deer’s niche.