I decided to take a closer look at the ivy growing on the tree I am observing when I was walking around my sit spot

The tree I was observing hasn’t changed since I last saw it.

Since my last sit spot, there was a day where it seemed the rain was never going to end. Some small trees and shrubs have fallen over since my last visit. The creek has slowly fallen, leaving behind the shadow of where it was at. My sit spot is west of Tinker Hall, down the hill next to the practice field.

 

 

 

 

Here is another picture of the leaves beginning to lighten and turn more yellowfins shades as we head towards colder weather.

Since my last sit spot, there was a huge rain storm, causing many of the small trees to fall over.

During my quiet time of observations, I noticed that the cicadas today were surprisingly quiet, so I was able to hear the crickets, with fish jumping farther down the stream mocking me as I couldn’t get a glimpse of them. I was startled about 20 minutes into my sit spot observations when I heard what sounded like a gun shot from a distance away, but broken protocol and called my mom and texted a fellow classmate so at least two people knew where I was if something happened. Anyways, while I was able to sit back down and calm myself, I felt the cool air, and was stuck in a limbo between want to put my warm, fuzzy sweater on or enjoy the crisp air. There wasn’t a cloud in the sky.

Unable to locate my small fish friends, I was unable to observe how they changed. I noticed they were down stream, breaching the water. The leaves in the surrounding foliage are turning lighter green to my left (south) but darker green to my right (west). The sunlight might be to blame for the color change. There is no breeze today, leading me to listen to the crickets and freeway to the west.

The light colored rock is the one I am observing, and I noticed that the water has gone down since my last sit spot, as another rock began to peak out of the water

The colors of the trees have begun to change as I sit in my spot along the creek.

Getting to walk around, I first went to the tree I wanted to examine and looked very closely at the ivy. Someone commented on my last blog wondering if it was poison ivy and recognizing the tree leaf structure am beginning to believe so too. I then tried to walk a little way along the creek to a part where I could see if I could spot the small fish closer up, which was hard for me to see from my sit spot today. However, I got a closer look at some of the different mud spots along the creek. There was one spot with very bright pumpkin orange cloudy mud, with no water flow. I noticed as I walked back to the creek bed next to my sit spot that there was a dead cicada. I couldn’t get a good picture of it. It was one of my first times actually seeing a cicada before, and when people say they are like big flies, they weren’t kidding.

I really enjoyed walking around my sit spot. I really wanted to explore the creek further, and since I got my rain boots, was excited to be able to walk around a bit more. I wanted to look for some caddisflies but didn’t have any luck. In my part of the creek, there wasn’t much snail either. I liked being able to engage more with my environment, and it helped me calm down after some upsetting news about my fractured toe update. I was able to leave all of my worries behind and be surrounded by nature.

Another adaptation I observed was the soil still wet as the creek has gone down, as it’s water potential has held in the water.

Here is an adaptation of the leaves changing color as the season changes.

Three adaptations I noticed with some organisms was that trees along the creek had very long roots reaching into the creek and intertwined with each other. This adaptation was to help in the dry season where water was scarce, and therefore found the creek which will have water access almost 24/7. I was also able to observe how the soil

The trees along the creek have grown long, intertwined roots to reach the water when the creek is low, as well as to stay standing when the winds get stronger, and as the soil is swept downstream.

was still wet after almost a week or two after rainfall. This isn’t really an adaptation now that I look back but shows the soil’s water potential and its field capacity. Lastly, trees are starting to go dormant as the leaves are falling off and changing to lighter shades of green, yellow and reddish orange. I found it kind of hard to see and think of some of these adaptations because I didn’t visualize them right away. I think that it’s just a different environment and not online that makes it harder to understand.