22 July 2009

(Click for full view)



These are six black-margined loosestrife beetles devouring a patch of invasive purple loosestrife plants. I found them while I was doing observations for my Animal Field Behavior class on the school's wetland reservation. Using beetles to get rid of the plants is a greener way to exterminate the plants, as long as they don't let the beetles become pests too.


From far away purple loosestrife looks almost like fireweed, but up close you can see the difference (fireweed is on the left).



Edit: Ugh. This layout doesn't automatically resize large photos. I'll work on this, probably tomorrow. You can only see four the beetles now.

20 July 2009

My school. Not really the best picture, but I'm just happy that I remembered to shoot one real quick. I between when I woke up at 7:30am and when I got home at 11:30pm I had literally an hour and a half to myself.


The "W" is formed out of flowers (marigold and some sort of purple flower I don't know the name of). The rest of the plants you see there are all part of a garden that only contains plants native to Washington state. There are even strawberries there :) It is also a pesticide-free garden.

13 July 2009

My class took a tour of the wetlands on our campus today. It's so beautiful and peaceful out there, I can't wait to go back by myself (after signing in) to take pictures and do my observations in private.



No birthday cake picture today, sorry ;)

5-5-09

The ceiling of the sitting areas in my school. It's a pretty new school, so there is a lot of modern design in the buildings.