I entered my sit spot on 11/18/2019 at 10:31 am. I almost forgot to write this down, as when I approached my sit spot, there was lots of commotion. Four White Tailed deer were in the woods, right past the clearing to my spot. I was very excited because I have always wanted to see them in my spot ever since Jadae had her encounter. Mine was not quite as cool, since as soon as I sat down they took off. I could not get any pictures because their light brown coats blended in perfectly with the leafless trees. On top of seeing the deer, there was a very active sparrow hopping around the space I usually sit in. I intended on scaring him away when I sat down, but he just moved a little further away. I finally got comfortable, and formally began my 15 minutes of quiet observation.

As usual, the lawn mowers started up with impeccable timing. It was beyond me why we still need lawn mowers in November, until I saw the leaf collectors on the back of it. When ever I see people raking, or sucking leaves in this case, I think of Harriet and the poor macro-invertebrates or animals that rely on the ecosystem leaf litter provides. I totally understand the clean up around front quad, but is it really necessary up at an abandoned house? I ended up scaring the poor grounds keeper, when he came around the corner and saw me. All the while this was going on, I was getting frustrated because I thought they were going to scare off my birds. Oddly enough, the little song sparrow was completely unfazed by the noise! He did not move a muscle, and throughout the duration of my observations he even hopped fairly closely around me as he pecked the ground for insects.

The Pokeberry bush I have been following is now completely brown! This should not have come as too much of a surprise, other than the fact that I thought I did my last sit spot two weeks ago, not 21 days ago… Even the new Pokeberry bush that I noted last blog that was still completely purple, is now totally brown. The dead tree is now completely visible as the vines wrapped around it have all died. I have noticed that the birds spend a lot of time around it. I wonder if the dead tree inhabits a lot of bugs for decomposing, which would explain the bird’s attraction to it. The only other guess I have is that it makes a good shelter for them. Lastly, the fountain grass I have been following is now either completely flat or “trimmed” to only a few inches tall. I believe they are all cut down now due to the deer I saw when I arrived at my spot. At least I hope that’s the case, versus them being unnecessarily weed-whacked.

During my two different sessions of 5 minute quiet listening, I don’t believe I changed much in the ways of listening skills. What I do believe changed when my eyes closed though, was the animal activity levels. It felt like some kind of a joke. All of a sudden there was different bird species calling, twigs and leaves crunching under the footsteps of small mammals, and an angry squirrel calling from a distant tree. It was as if they all knew I could no longer see, and it was show time! It took everything in me not to open my eyes back up. Of course, all the while the lawn mower is still droning in the background… This activity reminded me a lot of when I was a kid, how I would lay in the snow and just stare up at the sky and take in all the sounds and the crisp air.

 

 

Lastly, I picked a small dead clearing to watch for 10 minutes.  There was not a single living animal stirring in this entire plot. Not even an ant! I did notice lots of differently colored and shaped grasses and weeds. Some of it was green grass, as you would expect to see. Some of it was white and flat, like the hair on a balding old man. Other weeds were deep orange and dry. They almost seemed burned in a way. I’m sure that most of these colors are due to the dryness and the time of year, but it is interesting how many variations there was.

 

All and all, this was a much more interesting observation time than last week. I left my sit spot at 11:50 am.