Plants and Animals

General Overview

             

   The plants and animals that we found on our many adventures outnumber us two to one. Some of these amazing organisms include wild asparagus, snapping turtle, great egret , red bellied woodpecker the painted turtle, and the invasive species phragmites . This specific plant is taking over marshes and suffocating other native plants and microscopic organisms. Also some different plants we found were poison ivy and another interesting thing that we found was a beaver lodge. 

                 

This is the Ipswich River (above) where we found the baby snapping turtle 

This is the marsh (above) where we found
Wild Asparagus , Phragmites and Mummichogs ,

 a rabbit, Great Egrets, Red Winged Blackbirds

Interesting Finds 

Baby Snapping Turtle found at Julia Bird Reservation

Some of the most interesting finds that we saw were the baby snapping turtle, and wild asparagus. The snapping turtle that we found was in the water, but at ankle deep and not moving, so some of us thought that it was dead. But luckily  it was not and we got some good data from that find about what type of animals the river could sustain.We also found some canadian geese and a broad winged damselfly larva.  The wild asparagus was in a marsh like area which is usually really salty and wet and all of the plants are adapted to it that way, but not asparagus, we found it  underneath some of the dead sea grass. It seems that it found some nutrients and made a small home for itself in the fresh and dryish soil with a lack of salt. Further downstream we found a water scorpion and they are quite scary and cool.

This is a Asian Shore Crab . It is an Invasive species. We found it at Dane Street Beach.

These are the mummichogs, a small bait fish that is commonly found in brackish water. We found it at Strawberry Hill.

This is a baby painted turtle . We found it in the Ipswich River Water Association. 

These are painted turtles . We found them while canoeing
at the Ipswich River Water Association.




















This is a broad winged damselfly larva and we found it at Ipswich River Watershed Association

This is the water scorpion and it is an invertebrate meaning that it has no backbone, and is actually quite common.(Found at Bradley Palmer Park).

This is a dragonfly larva and we found it at Bradley Palmer State Park