Ann
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I have done three comparisons - in my garden, two flowering plants which are difficult for me to identify until they flower - scarlet lynchnis and four o'clocks; kayaking up Little River in Washington County, Maine, two finely divided leafy submersed plants which I later identified as water marigold and large purple bladderwort; and walking through Moosehorn Wildlife Refuge in Washington County, Maine, two ferns, interrupted fern and Christmas fern. The exercise has been very helpful for me in looking closely at the parts of plants and learning the proper vocabulary for describing them as well as thinking about form and function.
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On April 9, I came across a "crime scene" on a snowy trail in Moosehorn WR in Maine. Feathers were scattered on the trail. I was not sure about the identities of the prey or the predator. Woodcocks had been displaying for about a week, and the feathers looked as if they could have belonged to a woodcock, so that was my hypothesis. I sketched a few feathers, then looked for and found the bill which was very long and oddly shaped at the end - certainly a woodcock. None of the feathers were broken. They appeared to have been neatly plucked. I imagine a mammal would have been messier, breaking feathers or leaving feathers in clumps, so a hawk or owl was most likely the predator. I looked for signs of an owl's roost but didn't find anything, so I really don't know. It was fun to play detective and look more closely to try to solve a mystery.
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The biggest challenges for me (Ann) were getting the posture of the bird correct and deciding what details of the background to include. It took me much too much time to complete!
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