Energy Transfer in Ecosystems

This week's assignment took some thought.  I  needed to build a photographic food chain.  Use of photographs made me think of the top consumers first because they would be harder to capture with a photo.  What could I find in my backyard?  A spider is a carnivore.  So I went looking for a spider web.  I found one--it even had an insect captured in the web.  Fantastic! However, I did not get a good photograph that showed both the spider and its prey clearly.  Hmm, this assignment was going to be more difficult than I thought.

So I continued my hunt.  When I found this gray tree frog near our hot tub, I was thrilled.
Now to find the prey.  Insects were moving so fast.  I finally found this dead mayfly.  That would work, but I was not satisfied with how it would look in my food chain.  So I searched on.

Finally I found the live mayfly, but I was not satisfied with the photo.  The background made it too hard to see the insect.  I would have to look further for my food chain.

When I went for a hike last Saturday, I decided to take my camera with me...just in case I would find something to include in my food chain.......AND I DID!

It was a warm (52 degree), sunny day in the midwest.  This would probably be the warmest day remaining this fall, so this might be my last opportunity to see those creatures that hibernate or leave for the winter.  In the early afternoon, I spotted it...well actually stepped over it.  It was a rough green snake sunning itself on the trail.  It is brightly colored but seemed to blend in with the moss.  I snapped several photos to make sure I would have one that would turn out well.

My thought was that this could be a predator of the frog.  However, when I looked in my field guide for the reptiles and amphibians, this particular snake has not been reported to eat frogs.  So, although some snakes eat some frogs and this snake might eat a gray tree frog if the opportunity arose, it has never been reported so I decided against this aspect of the food chain.  

But, my guide said that this species of snake eats grasshoppers and crickets.  That would be easy, I thought.  Well, not so fast.  I went looking for crickets.  I heard them everywhere, but when I got close, they stopped chirping and I couldn't find them.  No problem.  I'll try for grasshhoppers.  One of the grasshoppers blended so well with the leaf that it would be hard to see.  Ready to give up, I walked past my house and spotted it.....a grasshopper on the window sill.  This time, the grasshopper would really stand out so I quickly snapped the picture before it could move.  I consulted a field guide, but I am not sure of the species of grasshopper.  I just felt lucky to get the picture with such an active creature.

Next, the plant.  That was easy....plants don't move.  I went to our yard where we have planted native grasses and snapped a photo of Indian grass.  Now I could complete the assignment.





When I started the assignment, I thought that with a little forethought this would be easy.  But as this post shows, it is not as easy as it would seem!!  

The final product: