The most prolific part of my spot were the birds. At first, they were only present through their voice, which was very loud and constant. Then, a bluejay flew out of the woods and was followed by a smaller brown bird. The bluejay was very vocal and was clearly the bird I had heard earlier. Over the course of my time there, the bluejay moved over to the bushes around the pond and was joined by multiple other birds. A male and female cardinal briefly made an appearance before flying away. The birds did not seem to notice me as they flew into a bush in front of me. Besides the birds, insects were the only other wildlife I encountered. Plenty of gnats swarmed around while the occasional moth fluttered around. It would have been very peaceful if it weren’t for the constant sounds of pedestrians. Lots of cars and noisy golf-carts disturbed the peace and often times, the birds. And at one point, a group of geese could be heard, but never glimpsed.

But the noise did not bother a little blue and white moth that was perched on a blade of grass the entire time I was there. I watched this moth for a while and the only time it moved was when it twitched a leg. It did not seem bothered by me when I leaned in to get a photo of it, which makes me wonder how often it deals with larger beings, to get so used to them. I would likely not have noticed the moth, but my camera picked it up while I was looking for a different bug. But this moth did nothing. I expected it to be bothered by the loud sound of an overhead plane, but not even that bothered it, which makes me curious as to what and how much moths can hear. Even when I stopped paying close attention to it, the moth did not change position on its blade of grass.

Since my spot is right next to the pond, water is clearly very prevalent. I spent more time looking at the pond’s surroundings, but did spend some time looking in it. I did not see any fish, which may in part be due to the excessive amount of glare the sunset caused. I saw plenty of bugs on top of the water’s surface next to the copious amounts of algae that populated the entire pond. The birds seemed to congregate around the pond, with the bluejay circling over it until a particularly noisy golf-cart went by. Swarms of gnats floated above the surface of the water. The tall grass surrounding the pond was starting to turn brown at the tips, which is likely due to the changing temperatures and little to do with the water itself.

The objects I had paid attention to previously had some significant change. The small tree I noted last time had turned its leaves to shades of yellow and red, with some leaves still clinging to their green hues. The large tree was also changing colors, with some brown overtaking the green as the leaves fell to a pile on the ground. The bush that sat behind me remained relatively unchanged, but for a smattering of brown spots on a few leaves.

Overall I throughly enjoyed this experience, since it was quite peaceful (when planes weren’t flying overhead). I heard a plethora of bird calls, and it was interesting to get a glimpse into the bird’s behaviors and activities. The moth I observed was impressively still for almost an hour, which leads me to wonder how much time do they spend staying still? And how much of their lives is spent inactive? The foliage was interesting to look at and compare to last time I saw it, almost two weeks ago. The smaller trees changed significantly more than the larger ones, and that may be because of species or size. No mammals came to visit, which was unfortunate, but I had plenty of birds to observe.