The sky where my sit-spot is located.

I had arrived at my sit-spot at 5:14 pm, an hour before dusk, which is a time that I have been at before. Usually I would go a Little later in the day, however this time I was sure to arrive about an hour before sunset at 6:28 PM. I had left at about 6:35 PM, which to my surprise still had some daylight however the sun was setting faster than usual, therefore it had gotten pretty dark by the time I had left my sit-spot and arrived back towards Tinker residence hall. To go an hour before dusk so that I could have plenty of daylight remaining to closely examine my sit-spot and that way I could potentially go add around an hour before dawn, for my next sit-spot, in order to closely identify and decipher the differences and similarities that I for to see at different times of the day.

The temperature when I had arrived was quite warm being about 70 degrees with about 70% humidity and a light breeze within the southeast direction. Upon arriving at my sit-spot, I observed that the weather was partly cloudy with lots of dark grayish-blue clouds in the sky. The sky looked very admirable as there were lots of clouds that seemed to roll in throughout my time of completing my sit-spot analysis and observations. The sun was slowly setting behind the clouds creating a beautiful orangish-red, and yellow sunset amongst the clouds and far behind the mountains ahead of me. It seemed as if the large light grayish blue clouds were to be storm clouds, considering that when I had checked the weather it would be expected to rain later in the week. The weather was quite enjoyable and very relaxing, which made “tuning in” to my sit-spot much easier.

Usually, I go around the similar time to my sit-spot, there is usually a lot of light in the sky, and the sunsets at a later time, therefore providing me with lots of time to examine and observe my sit-spot within the natural lighting present in the sky. Based on my observations from last being at my sit-spot, I had noticed that the weather was dramatically different and that it was getting a lot cooler, and colder in the mornings and throughout the day. However, I had observed at my sit spot this time, that the weather was much cooler before sunset, and that the sun had set much earlier than my previous times of going to my sit-spot.

My sit-spot covered in the old brown-yellow pine leaves, and old leaves that have fallen from the trees.

 

When I had arrived at my sit spot, I had observed that there were several differences and changes within the actual location and environment of my sit-spot. I noticed that there were lots of Brown and old pine leaves that had fallen to the ground, a lot of the green plants all over the ground had also seemed 2 not as apparent since they were mostly covered by the large amounts of the Brown falling pine leaves. Since the weather has been changing quite a lot throughout the past few weeks, and since we are in the fall season, a lot of the leaves have fallen off the trees and changed colors. I was also able to examine that the sunset gradient in colors observed we’re much warmer as the sun was setting , in contrast to the natural light grayish-blue sky. The ground was carpeted in heavy amounts of the Brown pine leaves scattered about my sit-spot, as the small green plants still seemed very healthy and vibrant, scattered amongst the pine leaves. The trees were almost bare Due to the black of leaves remaining on the trees.

One change that I had noted specifically, was that I heard much different sounds of the animals and insects around me, than what I am used to typically hearing. I could clearly hear the birds in a nest in the tree to my West direction (directly in front of me). I could tell that the nest was probably made recently as I was able to distinctly hear the baby birds calling out for their mother, as their mother had brought them food. I couldn’t exactly see the baby birds, but I was able to see the nest, hidden within the tree branches, and the feathers of the birds. I could tell that the mother bird might have been a Cardinal Wren, since it had an unpatterned reddish-brown color above and warm buffy orange below, with a long white eyebrow stripe, dark bill, and white chin and throat. I had observed the mother flying into the nest, and the baby birds (might have been about two or three) crying out, as the mother arrived, probably to feed it. The mother bird, then flew away, out of the nest, as the baby birds seemed to settle down, and become quiet. This was one of the animals that I had observed and identified, which was very interesting because I had never seen the nest before. Another animal/insect I observed was an insect that was, what I had identified to be an American dun-bar moth. The moth had a triangle of trio black colored dots on them in the middle band of the brown forewings. I had searched this up later to identify it because I was very interested. It had landed in the grass, and stayed there for a couple minutes, and had flew away

As for my three things I had been examining, the first was the group of pinecones at the bottom of one of the trees located in my West direction (directly in front of me). The pinecones had surprisingly not fallen off the pine tree yet. The two pine cones still stayed on the tree, as they looked more dirty and light brown in appearance,  the bark was still grayish to reddish-brown, with the pinecone having layers of scales forming ridges that are broken into irregular blocks. There was some type of white, sap-like substance on the ridges of the pinecones. There also seems to be lots of brown-orange pine leaves ready to fall off the trees. As for the small green plants, they still contained large numbers of insect-eaten holes, the leaves still darkish-green, into a pale light yellow around the edges of the leaves. Most of the plants were covered by the old, brownish-yellow pine leaves covering the ground. The lichens and moss on the tree located in my Southwest direction, contained growing lichens, but some of the plants that were growing up against the bottom portion of the tree were covered by old leaves. The lichens on the tree were very light-green in color, as the moss seemed to have grown a bit as well. 

The first thing I’ve been observing, the pinecones located at the bottom of one of the trees.

The second thing I’ve been observing, the small green plants, with the insect-eaten holes.

The third thing I examined, the lichens and moss on the tree.