A Little Bit More
With just a quick look at a duck, it isn’t all that easy to tell whether it’s a dabbler or diver but now that you know what to look for, you can probably tell much more easily. Most of the ducks we see are the dabbling kind simply because these are the species that live on smaller bodies of water where we’re likely to see them. The diving species are often concentrated in the winter months but this generally occurs on larger lakes and streams, quite some distance from the shore.
The dabbling ducks, as the poster points out, feed mostly at, or just below, the surface. They are much more agile on land so are more likely to be the ones we see in old farm fields during spring and fall migrations too. Furthermore, the dabblers have larger wings and are able to rocket off of the water’s surface, or land, very quickly.
The diving ducks feed mostly below the surface and are especially adept at swimming underwater. Their feet are placed farther back on their body, which provides better propulsion for swimming, but this means that on land they’re much more clumsy and prefer not to feed there. The wing’s of divers are more pointed and not quite as large as the dabblers and thus they’re required to gain quite a bit of speed before they can take off. As a result, divers do not like to land on small bodies of water that makes liftoff, difficult if not impossible.
Activities
Science & Math – Microenvironments
Objectives: Learn about microenvironments
Materials: Thermometers (5or6), notebook/pencil
In a previous unit activity (Janurary 21, Cool, Clear Water) we dealt with water and focused on taking the temperature of a local pond or stream. Let’s continue along the same vein but this time, we’ll take the temperature of some specific land areas around your school or home. Although we listen to the radio and TV each day to get the local temperatures, in actuality, temperatures can vary a great deal depending on where they’re taken.
Each community sets up a specific metrological area for their temperature recording and this becomes the “standard”. This works well enough to give us an overall approximate temperature but doesn’t give you an accurate temp for the exact location where you are. You might think that one or two degrees wouldn’t make any difference, but if we’re right at the point of freezing, it can make a world of difference to you.
This exercise will help students realize that temperature does vary from place to place, even within a small, geographic area.
1. Line up your thermometers to make sure they all read EXACTLY the same temp. If not, you may need to adjust the readings of some that are a bit “off”. Each thermometer should be labeled (A,B, C, whatever).
2. Select an assortment of locations to monitor immediately around where you live or your school. If you have 6 thermometers, you can locate 6 different locations. Try varying the locations (north side of building, south side of building, under leaves, on top of a rock or concrete block, slightly buried underground, in the open, etc.)
3. At a consistent time each day (can do multiple times each day if you wish) have someone note the location, thermometer label, and time in a notebook and record the temperature at each location for that time. It will be evident that not all of the location temps are the same – some may vary quite a bit depending on various factors.
4. After doing this for several days, you may find a trend (the same locations are higher or lower at a specific time of day than most other locations).
5. You may want to transfer the thermometer readings you’re getting from Fahrenheit into Celsius or the reverse so students are familiar with both
6. It will now be interesting for the students to decide which of their locations would be the best one to locate the thermometer for recording the official temperature of your school – opinions may vary quite a bit here. Your students should be able to understand that WHERE the metrological station setup for your area is located, has a great deal of bearing on what the temperature reading is for any given time.
Questions
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