October 1, 2019- 7pm to 7:49pm

 

My sit-spot is located on the right side of the bridge over Carvins Creek. In front of where I sit is a decent amount of land, along with the creek and a bit of land along the bank that I can observe. There are plenty of trees, which includes two that grow relatively close together and have other smaller plants growing between them, a tree a bit down from me and to the right that has leaves growing up its trunk near the base of the trunk, and another that grows northwest of it, with a bush in between. I am facing the Northwest. There is a lot of leaf litter on the ground, the leaves varying in colors. Also, there is a large stick on the ground by the two trees that are near the west by the stream bank. I saw directly in front of my some light purple flowers that were not there the last time I visited my sit spot.

I chose this sit spot because it is an area that has a canopy and many trees, which allows me to view and listen to birds. It also has grass and other ground plants, which allows me to see insects and other invertebrates and even some small vertebrates. Carvins Creek allows for me to observe the water and see if I can observe any aquatic animals. Overall, I chose my sit spot because of the diversity of life it can have, from tree-dwelling organisms to aquatic organisms. Another reason I chose my sit spot is that it is no longer than a fifteen minute walk from Tinker and is easy to get to. Overall, I feel pretty good about my sit spot as there isn’t too much human activity except for the bridge. I am able to hear traffic but it isn’t distracting.

For my second time at my sit spot, I chose a time in which the sun was going down to see if there was a change from last time, when I visited late morning. I found that there was more animal activity and I was able to see an animal I wouldn’t have seen if I was just strolling by. I noticed that fall colors are starting to emerge on the trees and that some of the grass is a pale brown while most of the grass is still green. Within the creek, when I first arrived, I saw a long ripple in the water caused by a long organism. I wasn’t able to get a good look at it as it was swimming by quickly and I lost track of it when it went under the bridge. It did look to have a long tail so my original thought was a snake of some sort, but it is likely it could have been something else. Throughout my time at my sit spot, there were a lot more ripples caused by aquatic organisms and leaves falling in the creek than there were last time. The flower from the last time I visited was gone, but I could still see part of its shoot. However, I saw another flower directly in front of me. It was small and had small, light purple thin spade-shaped leaves. Most of the leaves on the trees in my sit spot were still green. The ground itself had a lot of dead leaf litter that is likely being decomposed.  The dirt itself was a light brown in color and bare patches were able to be seen. Large and small sticks littered the ground near the base of trees.

I saw a few mosquitos near the beginning but they were gone by the time the sky got dark. Near the middle of my silent observation, I saw to the North some little mouse-like animals jumping around the base of a tree on their hind legs. They were a bit far but looked to be a brown or grey color. There were two, one going around the tree and into some leaves on the ground and the other trying to climb the tree. Also, I saw a tiny bird land next to the tree then fly towards the tree I’m observing and land in the bush by it. I watched as it hopped along the branches of the bush and looked around. At one point, it looked at me and then stared for a few seconds before continuing to hop along the branch. I lost track of it after it went behind some leaves. Near the end of my observations, I saw two birds that made short trilling noises earlier land by the water on the opposite side of the creek. One landed first and stood very still. A few moments passed and it moved towards the water. Then, another landed by it and they both stopped, making bird noises. Then, they suddenly took off in opposite directions. As one landed on a plant not too far away from where it took off, I saw that it had a long tail. I wasn’t able to see its colors as by that point it was getting very dark. Throughout my time there, I heard chirping from crickets and some chirps that kind of sounded like an alarm.  The sky itself was a light blue that got shades darker, and with the darkening of the sky the clouds got darker-looking too. The air smelled a bit musky, like it does when one walks through the forest and leaf litter is decomposing.

My experience in my sit spot this time differs greatly from last time. I chose a different time to visit: 7:00pm to 7:49pm, when it was getting dark. Not only did it get harder to see near the end of the hour, but also I heard and saw more animals than last time. Sadly, I did not see as many invertebrates close up as last time, no matter how hard I looked at the dirt to see if I could observe any. I noticed that there were more ripples from organisms than last time and it was warmer than last time as well. I chose to visit later in the day because I had finished my homework by then and I wanted to see if there was variation in what I saw at different times.

I’m observing the tree with leaves growing up its trunk, the creek because of the organisms and to see how it changes, and the sounds of bugs chirping to see how that changes over time, if it lessens as it gets colder and by how much.