10/28/19 10:09PM-10:51PM

On this installment of Alea’s Sit-Spot Blog, we are going to shake things up and do a late night observation!

So I had arrived at my sit-spot location at 10:09 PM. let’s just say. It was very dark and cold. But nonetheless! It was a very interesting experience. The main reason why I chose to do my observation at night was because all of the other times I had went out were in the morning or in the mid-afternoon. Coming out at night would bring about a whole new set of challenges, as well as insights to share on the blog.

Now initially, I was pretty nervous to go out to my sit-spot location at night. Just walking about campus at night spooks me from time to time! Because of these reasons, I brought along a friend to help keep me company and to help with the observations as well.

Obviously with it being night time, there was the issue of not being able to see as much of my surroundings as I would during the day. When looking for my 3 organisms, being able to simply locate one of them was difficult. The yellow wildflower that I have been tracking during this experience was very hard to find, and the fact that it was the only one of its kind in the surrounding area made it more difficult. So I headed towards it’s general location, and first noticed that there were no buds about to indicate that they were there. I was quite concerned that I could not see well enough in the dark. (I did use a flashlight, but I really do have poor eyesight :/). Instead of my yellow wildflower, I saw little grass like plants with fuzzy tips, similar to that of my grass stalk from previous blogs.

Speaking of my lone grass stalk, based on how it looked under a flashlight, it seemed to not have changed since the last time I had seen it. The only change that was slightly noticeable was that it was a bit droopy, which may just be caused by the lack of sunlight. I’ve had plants before that would droop during the night. Finally, my last organism is my large tree. Similar to my grass stalk, it appeared to be the same, only with fewer leaves than before.

Moving onto some new organisms about my sit-spot. Fittingly, I did hear a few crickets from the NW of my sit-spot location. I honestly prefer their churching to the constant hum of various kinds of insects that I would hear during the day. BUT the real star of the night today was a deer that popped out from the tree line along Carvin’s Creek. Initially it had startled my friend and I, but watching it prance and wobble it’s tail is such an odd manner was very hilarious! I wish I had recorded it haha. It was only a few. moments after we spotted it did it take notice of us then retreat back into the woods.

I think the best part of the night was stargazing. Back where I lived in California, it was very difficult to see the stars due to the amount of light pollution. There would be times that I can spot a few stars here and there, but they were not as distinct as they are in the sky here. And so with my lack of experience with looking at the stars, it was pretty hopeless for me to name out any possible constellations that I saw. Despite that, I really enjoyed the experience overall. Maybe I will go out again to just gaze at the stars.

Overall, observing into the night was interesting and filled with new experiences. I do not think that I will go back out again during the night, mainly for safety reasons, but I had a blast!