NatureSeen

This is your special place to put your true, carefully-made observations of nature. Even if you are not adding observations, NatureSeen is still your place to read about what others have seen or otherwise observed.

NatureSeen is your place to:

• Gain knowledge
• Gain ideas
• See amazing photographs of nature
• Add to the knowledge of others
• Synthesize, summarize, and hypothesize
• Become motivated to make more and better observations
• Gain techniques and equipment for making observations
• Support and encourage reporting and conserving observations made of the natural world, worldwide.

You are welcome to read it all or just use the standard "Search" at the top bar of your screen. Within the Search window, type in the word of interest and then click on the "Next" button to follow through on your search for other places where your key word was used. These reports are not organized in any way but assigned a number and then listed in the sequence received. Be sure to see the disclaimer.

In NatureSeen we have few rules. There is no cost to making an entry. The "rules and suggestions" are few and are available.

All of us thank you. Too many rare or unique observations of nature have been lost, ignored, discarded, or given no place in "modern scientific" publications. Hours afield making observations are few, expensive, sometimes dangerous, and often the result of a special convergence of factors. We think that unreplicated field observations and those of sample-size" one" should be reported, not filed away into the dark otherness. Enough is enough! Work with us. Share. Enjoy!

We also accept observations about observations. We welcome your comments and observations about making (or failing to make) good observations. (Attach them to an e-mail note to us. We'll cite you if you so desire.) The loss in studies of nature has been great over the past 50 years. Museums and libraries have been closed. Experts have retired. Creating this site, we hope, will mark the end of that loss and a new trend in sharing all types of field observations of wild animals and plants and the places and conditions where they live. Observations of pets, domestic animals, or gardens are not included.

Here is where you make your entry. Fill in the form and send it automatically by clicking on the submit symbol. The words wrap. There are about 15 rows of space available. Observations are usually brief. Submit several, one at a time. Contact us if you need special help with your entries.

Observations

1. In relation to questions about deer swimming, In New York City Parks we had seen a deer or 2 in the Bronx that had come down from Westchester County, but found out about a rescue that had to be made on Staten Island. A deer had apparently forged the river from New Jersey to Staten Island. It was amazing to hear, in part because of the distance the deer swam against strong currents and because this was happened in New York City.
   email Oct. 28, 2000 from Vicki Hornbostel, vlh@dellnet.com
2. E.T. Seton in The Lives of Game Animals (1929) wrote: "Richardson, in his overland journey, 1848, relates that on June 26, at Buffalo Lake, "a Canada Lynx was seen swimming across a strait, where the distance from shore exceeded a mile. We gave chase and killed it easily. This animal is often seen in the water" and elsewhere he remarks: "It swims well and will cross the arm of a lake two miles wide." Seton is citing Dr. John Richardson, author of Fauna Boreali Americana (1829).
   reported by Christopher Hoving via email, November2, 2000
3. I know of two other accounts of lynx swimming: one on a lake, and the other crossing a river.
   HAM,E. 1963. I remember...the Allagash lynx. Down East Magazine. 9(10): 87.
   DARLING,J. 1896. A lynx family. Forest and Stream 47(4): 64. (July 25).

   When considered in light of more recent studies of lynx ecology, an explanation for swimming behavior emerges. Kim Poole (JWM 61:497-505) has shown that lynx can disperse up to 930 km in the Northwest Territories. Given the number of lakes and rivers in boreal Canada, I hypothesize that lynx have evolved to disperse through water.

   Dispersal probably does not explain the orignal post of a deer swimming in Lake Erie. My guess is that the deer was frightened into the water, and simply continued swimming away from danger. In the nineteenth century, some hunters in Maine used dogs to chase deer into lakes where they could be shot from canoe.
   from email by Chris_Hoving@umenfa.maine.edu, Department of Wildlife Ecology,University of Maine, Orono, ME 04469-5755

4. In a thorough study of 9 techniques of estimating forest overstory cover, Vales, D. J., and F. L. Bunnell. (1985. Comparison of methods for estimating forest overstory cover. Research, Ministries of Environment and Forests. IWIFR-20. Victoria, B.C. 117pp.) tested for precision and accuracy. They concluded the most precise instrument was the spherical densiometer (analogous to a fish-eye lens), although the estimates obtained by this method were strongly biased. Techniques that projected wider angles resulted in higher mean estimates of canopy cover. The moosehorn was the most precise instrument among unbiased techniques. They concluded the 10 degree arc of the consentric grid from hemispherical photographs provided the most precise, unbiased technique.

   If projecting vertical canopy cover is your goal, you may wish to use a longer lens rather than a fish-eye, and sample from a grid of stations within your plot. Also, consider using a digital camera instead of film. Analyzing percent cover with digital photos doesn't require dot-grid overlays.
   email (Sept, 2000) from Matt Kirchhoff, matt_kirchhoff@adfg.state.ak.us, Research Biologist, Alaska Department of Fish and Game, Box 240020, Douglas, AK 99824

Comments from Users and Observers of NatureSeen

1. Sometimes anecdotes are true; sometimes they're not; sometimes they're in-between somewhere. Anecdotes do not make science, but they are useful for good storytelling, education, environmental interpretation, and sometimes even in research -- given that their truth-content is high. And there's the rub! I'm reminded of this every time I hear a uniformed naturalist or ranger tell me about how all rivers run south, or when they read the Chief Seattle speech to me with a tear.
   email from Matt Zuefle,
   Ohio University, November 1, 2000
2. It's my belief we have become overly smug with our computer models and statistics and thus tend to disregard these early day naturalists (Seton et al.) as emotional amateurs when in truth they were doing what we should be doing (and don't anymore); observing nature with an unbiased eye and trying to make sense of what was happening out there rather than trying to prove some preconceived view of how things SHOULD be. I also firmly believe that those who really understand nature are born with that ability, not taught it.
   from email by Dean Carrier
   November, 2000
3. "Amen" to Dean Carrier's comment about our field's apparent de-emphasis on simple natural history. This is not to say that there is anything wrong with statistics, mathematics, modeling, pretty GIS maps or the like. In fact, I firmly believe it is vital to advancing our understanding of nature. However, to the extent that it occurs at the expense of simple observation, I believe our field (and nature) will ultimately suffer. In my opinion, there has been too much departure from natural history in our education. Field trips for classes get dropped because of expenses (or lack of appreciation), etc. We have lots of people (though some could reasonably argue not enough) who can recite theory, develop models, and conduct complex mathematical and statistical evaluations. All of this is VERY good. Unfortunately, however, we now have too few people who can tell the difference between a raccoon track and a 'possum track, let alone people who actually get excited about observing such things. Part of this reflects the overall trend in society away from a so-called 'rural lifestyle'. But it is also true that the 'atmosphere' in which many of us work tends to make us feel guilty if we want to take a day and just go 'play in the field'. Of course we can, and should, do this on our personal time as well.
   from email by John Erb, e-mail: john.erb@dnr.state.mn.us
   Wildlife Research Biologist, Minnesota Dept. of Natural Resources, RR1 Box 181, Madelia, MN 56062, November, 2000

Note on the dynamics of this web site

• Conceived November 1, 2000,
• Designed and Formed on Nov. 3
• Entries

  Dates	Observations	Observations on Observations
  Nov. 3, 2000	2	3