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My sit-spot has not changed that much from the last time. However, more grass has died, and more leaves have fallen from trees. The grass on the other side of the creek is mostly dead. There are big patches of long grasses that have turned a beige color. Green grass still remains on my side of the creek, but I think that it’s a different type than the grasses that are dying. More of the creek bank is now exposed because the grasses have died. It looks very muddy with little tiny roots coming out of the front side.

 

My sit-spot is completely different than how it looked when I did my first sit-spot session. Almost all of the leaves have fallen from the trees, so it looks drastically different than the long stretch of green that I first saw. The ground is also now covered in brown leaves that have fallen from trees. There are also clumps of the brown leaves sitting in the creek that have gotten stuck by rocks and sticks in the water. The plants that also once grew through the cracks in the patch of rocks in the creek are now dead. This has made the area surrounding the creek look very different because the once tall plants have shriveled up and sunken down onto the ground.

 

It was pretty cold during this last sit-spot, but also very sunny with not a cloud in the sky. Since most of thee leaves have now fallen, I was able to see much further than before. I could more easily see the lichen and vines growing on trees. I was also able to recognize which trees are evergreens and will not be losing their leaves this fall. I could also very easily see the squirrels that were running around on the ground and scampering up trees.

 

I saw a large bird flying in the sky and circling an area near me. I think that it was a vulture, but I am not sure what kind of vulture. I wonder what it was circling. I also saw a small group of flies flying together in an up and down motion. They were all flying pretty close to the ground, so I wonder if there was something there that was attracting them. There are fewer organisms to observe when I do my sit-spots now than there were earlier in the semester. I am guessing that this is due to the change in season.

 

The tree that I have been following has finally lost all of its leaves and so has the plant to my left. This was really the only real change from my last sit-spot. The branch has not visibly changed at all since last time. All the things that I chose to follow this semester seemed to change in ways that I expected. The tree’s leaves all turned from green to brown and fell off and the plant to my left turned brown and all of its leaves turned brown and fell off too. The branch in the water did not really change at all, but it did accumulate a group of leaves that got stuck on it as they drifted down the creek. I think that the branch didn’t change because it isn’t living; it’s just a dead branch in the water. There wasn’t really anything too unexpected that happened to the three things that I chose to follow over the course of this semester.

 

I have really enjoyed doing my sit-spot this semester. It was interesting to witness the changes in the plants, animals, and surrounding area. It was really cool to see and recognize all of the different moving parts that go into an ecosystem. So many things have the capacity to change, and those small changes can affect everything else. It was very peaceful every time that I got to go out there and just observe the nature surrounding me. It does make me more inclined to go out there and make observations on my own. My favorite part of all of the sit-spots was the caterpillar that I saw swimming in the creek during my first sit-spot session. I am still amazed that they are able to do that.