Emily Silva's Digital Scavenger Hunt Set #2 (seven photos)

1) This is a picture of one of the hummingbirds that frequents the hummingbird feeder that my mom hung up outside our kitchen window. The hummingbirds we get here in the northeastern United States are ruby-throated hummingbirds, and they are an example of a sexually dimorphic species. This means that there are distinct differences between the males and females of this species. The male ruby-throated hummingbird has a green back and a red band stretching across its throat, hence the name of the species. The female is a brownish color (the picture is of a female), lacks the red band, and is slightly larger. They are a fascinating and beautiful sight to see.

 2) Flowers need water to survive just like any other living creature. These flowers wilted overnight due to the weather being so hot. Flowers wilt when the water in their cells flows out through the process of osmosis. When flowers have enough water, it fills their cells, no water flows out, and the plants stand up straight for two reasons. The first is because the water concentration is high throughout the whole plant, and the second is that plant cells contain cell walls, which are firm. However, when flowers need to be watered again, the water flows from an area of high concentration to low concentration (osmosis), meaning that the water can’t fill all of the cells and the plants are unable to stay turgid, or rigid. When the flowers are watered, they will be able to become turgid again as the water refills their plant cells.

 3) Here’s my tarantula, Hyzenthlay, again (I hope spiders don’t scare you!). Hyzenthlay has covered a large amount of her substrate (the coconut fiber on the bottom of her terrarium) in webbing. It’s visible above her and behind her in this picture, where there is a sort of white glare. The silk comes out of ducts located on the back of her abdomen. Before entering those ducts, the silk is made of liquid proteins. As it goes through the ducts, cells pull the water in the silk away and pump hydrogen into a different part of the ducts, creating an acid bath. This solidifies the silk, which is excreted from the spider’s spinnerets. The spinnerets can produce different types of silk, from sticky to non-sticky, from thick to thin, depending on what the use of the webbing is at the time. Hyzenthlay’s spinnerets can be seen in the picture. She has one pair of black spinnerets located at the back of her abdomen.

4) This is a picture of my cat, Vervex, eating grass. There are many speculations as to why cats eat grass. First, you may notice that after a cat eats grass, it will sometimes regurgitate it (I know Vervex has before). This could be because the grass is helping to rid the cat’s stomach of fur, bones, feathers, or other things that it can’t digest, and because grass itself is not able to be digested by cats. Therefore, when the cat throws up the grass, it’s removing any other harmful substances from its stomach as well.  Another idea is that grass has folic acid in it, which aids in the production of hemoglobin in blood. A third idea is that grass acts as a natural laxative, helping to break down fur that may get into the cat’s digestive tract and move it along without hurting the cat. Whatever the reason, eating grass has never been shown to hurt a cat, it only seems to be a beneficial thing.

5) These are pictures of the gold finch (Carduelis tristis) that comes to my house regularly to eat the seeds from our sunflowers. This bird has adapted perfectly for its diet, showing off a conical beak. Conical beaks are very short and wide, making them the strongest and most capable of cracking open seeds. Though we have sunflower seeds in the bird feeder next to our flowers, the gold finch (and his mate) prefers to cling to the tops of the sunflowers to get the seeds directly from the source. Some other common “backyard birds” with conical beaks are cardinals, catbirds, and titmice.

6) This is the female turkey that’s been wandering around my neighborhood with her chicks for quite a few months now. They've grown a huge amount. You may notice the lack of a father turkey in this picture. Well, we've never seen him. This is because male turkeys are polygamous, meaning they mate with as many hens (female turkeys) as possible. Males attract mates through a process called strutting, in which they puff out their chests, spread their tail feathers, and drag their wings. The more “attractive” they are to the females of their species, the more they’ll get to mate, meaning more baby turkeys and a better chance of survival for the species, as well as the male's good genes being passed along.

7) Last year, as a junior, I took the elective Aquatic Ecology. In this class, I was given the opportunity to dissect a fish. This particular fish is a brook trout. This picture shows the respiratory system of the fish. The part being held back by the stick is the operculum, a hard, bony plate which protects the fish’s sensitive gills. When a fish opens its mouth and takes in water, the operculum closes. When the fish closes its mouth, the operculum opens and the water moves through the gill slits and into the gill chambers, where the oxygen is filtered and diffused into the fish’s blood. The gills are the feathery looking flesh under the fish’s operculum. Carbon dioxide is pushed out below the operculum and put back into the water.