This is the tree that I am observing, and the bird nest that is in it.
This is the bush that I am observing that now looks like a pile of sticks.
The arrow is pointing to the flower that I am observing.
This is the view of my sit-spot
This is another view from my sit-spot.
This is the a drawing of the bird that I saw, I am sorry that it is so terrible.
I arrived at my sit-spot at 9:50 AM. This morning it was nice and sunny with minimal cloud coverage. It was a chilly 46 degrees. In the sun it was warm, but as soon as the breeze swept through it was extremely cold. I was wearing a sweatshirt and my big snow coat and the breeze was still bad. When I got to my sit-spot there were a few thin and wispy clouds, but by the end of my time there the sky was completely covered by a thin cloud. I could see darker clouds off in the distance so I knew that it would rain later in the day.
Since my last time at my sit-spot there have been many changes. There is now a mid-sized bird nest high in the tree that I am observing. I am unsure of what species of bird that the nest belongs to. It is extremely high, and I could only see the bottom and side of the nest. The flower that I am observing is now dried out. It felt like a slightly tougher paper straw, and when I moved it slightly it began to pull out of the ground. I was careful and stopped touching it because I did not want to disturb any of the nature at my sit-spot. The bush that I am observing now looks almost like a pile of sticks with some thorns laying on the ground. It has lost all of its foliage and is just a structure now. The grass was also mowed at my sit-spot, and all of the leaves are gone from beneath of the tree-line. I am assuming that the university made some executive decision to mow and collect leaves all over campus. I saw them doing this outside of Tinker and Randolph, but I did not think that they would do it out at my sit-spot. One final change that I noticed was that the deer tracks that I usually see along the deer trail are no-longer there. This may be because there hasn’t been much rain recently, so the ground is dryer than it has been in the past.
My sit-spot was quiet again with the occasional crow call off in the distance or the chirp of a songbird. The songbird chirps were short and high-pitched. They sounded like a small squeaker toy when you first squeeze it. It would have been annoying if it was a constant squeaking, but I didn’t mind that much today.
I did see a crow sized, maybe a bit smaller, fly and land near the nest in the tree above me. It was black but had a thinner beak than I have seen on crows previously. I think that it may be the one who built the nest, but I am unsure because it did not go directly to the nest. I was trying to pull out my phone to get a picture but as soon as I was ready the bird flew off. I was upset by this because I love taking pictures of birds and it would have been helpful in identifying the bird. The bird was the only animal I saw during my time at my sit-spot. This also upset me because I was just wanting some sort of thing to observe while I was at my sit-spot. The first time I was at my sit-spot I saw all sorts of things, but now it seems as if there is nothing at my sit-spot.
This session was felt more normal than my last session. I was still anxious about being out there because of the Roanoke situation currently, but I did not constantly feel the need to check everything around me. I did bring a friend with me that way that I could feel safer. I much prefer coming during the daytime over dusk and nighttime. I felt more like there wasn’t a problem with me being out there. Last time I felt extremely out of place and like I was wrong for being there at that time.
Perhaps the bird was a blackbird! Those resemble crows, but are smaller. I think it’s really cool that there’s a new nest in the tree you’re observing!