I tried to take a picture at the same angle that I drew my picture. The darkest arrow is the direction I was facing. My back was to the south east (against the building), and I was facing towards the north west, north being just to the slight right of me. My spot is a very grassy clearing behind the abandoned archive house. Directly in front of me was an odd, yet interesting purple bush. Surrounding me the rest of the way is trees and other mushes. The box next to my drawing of the research facility is the box from a tractor trailer. Every time I see it, I become super curious about its purpose back there.

I have come to love my sit spot. My first (and deleted) blog post, I had said I did not like it for many reasons, including noise, low visibility, and mosquitoes all over me. This time I brought a blanket to sit on, and I shifted to a further away part of the clearing for my sit spot. This small      change drastically improved the amount of species I could see at any given time. The spot is extremely peaceful, and away from the chaos of campus.

The most interesting thing about my sit spot was the vibrant purple bush. I know I have seen this bush before, because as a kid I would run over the berries with my white bike to stain the tires purple. I also know that birds love to eat them, and during this sit spot time that is where many of the birds were seen. After some quick googling, I have discovered that it is called a Pokeweed. These strong rooted plants allegedly have medicinal purposes for stimulating the immune system. The biggest draw back is it has to be harvested at the exact right time, and prepared in a very specific way, including pouring out the water its boiled in three times, in order to be safe.

The birds I saw during my time were the most exciting to me. Birds are my favorite part about being outdoors, so it is pretty hard for me not to focus on them this time. Due to the time of year, they were pretty abundant. The two species I saw the most of was the Grey Catbird and the Northern Mockingbird. The Grey Catbird is relatively the same size and body shape as a Mockingbird but can be easily identified by its distinct cat like call. They are also completely slate grey, whereas a Mockingbird is pale around the chest but has dark wings with a bright white band through the middle of them. At one point, I saw a Mockingbird chase off another Mockingbird. I wonder if it was because one of them was in the other’s territory? On top of these two, I saw a brilliant red Northern Cardinal, a red/brown female Cardinal in the Pokeweed, heard a Tufted Titmouse. I identified it first by its call that sounds like “peter peter peter”, and then by seeing its small grey body with a crest on its head. Before finally leaving my spot, I saw an American Redstart for the first time. They look like smaller Orioles, with dark black/grey bodies and vibrant red/orange bands on their wings and under their tail. I was unfortunately unable to get photos of any of the birds because they either moved too fast or were too hidden by leaves.

I found this sit spot time much easier to do, and I even went well over my hour time limit because of the bird and bug activity around me. The first time, I hardly made it to 45 minutes before wanting to burst. This time, It almost felt like meditation. My spot made me feel like it was easier to breathe. This time was also probably easier because there was no lawn mower distraction or noisy construction vehicles. I now look forward to my next time in this little hideaway.

The three things I chose to follow was Fountain grass, a fallen tree, and the purple bush. I chose these three things because they were the three things I expected to stay where they were and because I don’t know how they will change as the seasons do, so I thought that would be most interesting to write about.