Date: March 23, 2020Location: Area around my house in Detroit, Michigan. Latitude: 42.365, Longitude: -83.131, Elevation: 596ft

The topography of the area is very flat. Habitat is very seasonal trees and a large number of conifers. Not many animals in the area besides birds that are native to the area and common animals found in most neighborhoods.

Typical Thrush bird
-Smaller sized bird and many are seen around the area.

Spruce Tree
-Very large tree around 15 feet tall. A common tree for this time of year in the area.

Petrosedum surrounded by dead leaves (non-native)
-A plant in the area around a park. Likely planted for aesthetic purposes.

Eurasian Red Squirrel (T. hudsonicus) in a tree (native) in a tree
-These are common squirrels seen in the area. This one was somewhat unusual because it is very dark brown/black.

American elm (Ulmus Americana) in dormancy (native)                          –This tree is still in dormancy since it is still cold in Michigan.

 

Species account: The American red squirrel wasn’t very large. Around the normal size of a squirrel. The squirrel was a very dark brown almost black color. When I first went to take a picture of the squirrel it was on the ground and by the time I got to take the picture, it ran into a tree where it was eating. I assume it was eating some kind of acorn but I’m not very sure. I did notice that it took its food up into the tree instead of eating it on the grass of the park I was in. The park doesn’t have many trees, it is a smaller park and half of it is a playground. I normally see squirrels in this area but they are normally in the bigger trees that are around the park but not exactly in the park. The squirrel also looked very aware, like if it was in its normal habitat.

I left for this walk at around 6 o’clock. The sun was going down and this time and the skies had been grey the whole day. The weather was really cold around 30 degrees Fahrenheit and outside was wet since the day before it snowed around an inch and it had all melted by the time I went out for the walk. This probably played a part in why I didn’t see many other species in the area also it was later in the day. I couldn’t get a good picture of the whole area but I walked around four blocks.