Alaska Wetlands

1. powerful curved bills
2. sharp talons
3. birds, fish, mammals, amphibians, crustaceans
   1. some perch near freshwater wetlands other soar high or low over them
4. eagles, hawks falcons owls
   1. bald eagles and ospreys common along coast of alaska
   2. buteos "soaring hawks" and owls hunt by perching
   3. northern harrier "marsh hawk"

      Nota:

      • low flying over prey

1. keep the skin moist, prevent bacteria, molds, and diseases from entering the body.

1. 1. they begin their lives as tadpoles
2. 2. mature tadpoles have legs
3. 3. by mid summer the tadpoles has developed into a young froglet
4. 4. wood frogs freeze solid during the winter
5. 5. frogs breed as soon as they thaw out

1. male frog crasps to the female fertlizing eggs, as she lays 2000-3000 eggs in a big jelly like formation. they hatch 4-8 days depending on the temp

1. ducks
   1. courtship rituals
   2. different mates every year
   3. diving ducks (divers)
      1. clams, insects, crustaceans, fish, deep plants
      2. large mashes and lakes
      3. short pointed wings

         Nota:

         • because of their wings they need a long space to take off
      4. can dive 150ft
      5. inland, canvasback, redhead, ring-necked, and scaup
      6. seaducks, eiders, soters, long-tailed, harleguin, goldeneyes, bufflehead, and mergansers
   4. puddle ducks (dabblers)
      1. insects, crustaceans on the surface of water
      2. broad wings

         Nota:

         • means they can take of quickly
      3. small ponds
      4. mallard, pintail, green-winged teal, american wigeon, gadwalls, northern shoveler

         Nota:

         • Mallard: most common type of duck in north america
2. geese, swans
   1. mate for life
   2. molt once per year

      Nota:

      • molt means to replace feathers once a year.
   3. adapted for walking and grazing on land

Nota:

• they eat fish, hense the sharp bills and webbed feet

1. sit low in the water
2. sink straight down
3. they cary their young on their backs
4. webbed feet and sharply pointed bills

1. long skinny necks
2. dive forward
3. fresh water lakes, ponds, and slow moving rivers
4. lobed toes
5. carry young on back
6. western pied-bills in southearn alaska

1. long legs, shorts tails, sharp pointed wings
2. bristle-thighed curlew, black turnstone, western sandpiper, nest only in alaskas wetlands
3. dowitchers, godwits, plovers, turnstones, sandpipers, curlews, snipe, phalaropes, yellow legs

1. webbed feet
2. sharp bills
3. gulls, terns, and cormorants

1. slow river current
2. enhance the growing conditions for willows
3. remove the competition of larger, older trees
   1. great moose habitat
4. the ponds they make from biulding dams, are good spawning habitats

1. submerge their heads to obtain mineral-rich aquatic plants that help replace calcium lost through nursing or antler development
2. feed in ponds
3. river floodplains provide abundance of willows, which is a favorite of moose

1. aquatic plants, roots, stems, cattails,lilies, sedges, and grass, mussels, shrimp, and small fish
2. keep an air open in the ice to access their cache

1. forage on both land and fresh and salt water
2. mink prefer streams, ponds, beaches and marshes
3. advantage of an abundance of mice or hares

1. classified as marine mammals
2. wetlands and shores are important foraging grounds for polar bears in Summer when seals are out of reach
3. find and eat bird eggs, rodents, and berries