For this sit spot, I chose to go at dawn, from 6:45 to 7:50 am. I chose this time as I have gone close to dusk a lot and have not gone in the morning
before and thought it would be nice to watch the sunrise. I also thought it would be nice to get up early and start my day off with fresh, cold air and nothing beats a beautiful sunrise.
Being up before anyone else is on a Sunday was very refreshing. The weather was 45 degrees out with only some low-lying fog, and a clear sky otherwise. There was no breeze, but with the chilled air and wet grass from the practice field, my toes were slightly frozen. From my last sit spot, there seems to be another tree fallen, completely blocking my path back towards the creek, and limiting my view of upstream. Coming early in the morning, I was able to see a blue jay fly down the creek, making a very loud chirping noise, which kind of startled me as I wasn’t expecting it. I was also able to hear some crows in the distance talking back and forth. Along with the crows and blue jays, I also heard two other birds, one with a high-pitched chirp, and another with a four-part tune that sounded like an
instrument. I was quickly able to see the fish in the creek, but they were small and swam away as soon as I got close enough to the creek to see them. I was also able to see more squirrels than I normally would and saw one fall from the top of a 25-foot tree almost into the creek.
Going in the morning was a lot more eventful than during the evening or middle of the day. Everything is just starting to wake up and not tired or going to sleep. I would go during the morning again, maybe not as early, but certainly before 11 in the morning. I was able to watch the sun rise over tinker mountain at 7:20 and light up the upper canopy in a warm orange glow.
The difference between this session and the one before was the number of animals that were present and the different lighting angles with the sun not blocking my view of the creek. Something that I noticed that was
different is that trees in the upper canopy have lost almost all their leaves, with some sort of pine trees to still have their dark green leaves. The trees along the creek that made up the lower canopy were full of green and yellow leaves.
I also find that going to my sit spot at around dawn allows me to witness a lot more activity! The canopy view at my sit spot also emphasized the lack of leaves on trees at this point in time.
Cat,
I thought dawn was a good choice for my sit-spot, too! Even though it tends to be cold, it is always so serene on campus and you can really feel the energy of everyone getting ready to start their day. I also see plenty of fish in the creek where my sit-spot is, but they always swim away from me before I can snap a picture!