5:18-6:18p.m. 55-53F
I arrived at 5:18 p.m. at sunset (dusk) to my sit spot. I’ve never previously went to my sit spot when the sun was setting but decided to because I wanted to see how different the environment would change with less light and some less human activity/noises that always seem to interrupt consciously or subconsciously. I knew night time (total darkness) would be too terrifying for me and I felt there would be enough light and darkness if I picked to go during the sun set but it turned out to be much darker than I thought.
My spot’s shrubbery had changed a bit. Most of the shrubbery looked kind of wilted due to their drooping and some looked like they were dying. It’s probably due to transition of fall to winter or it could be due to the lack of rainfall that could be affecting the plants or both. Also, so many dead leaves and dead pine ‘leaves’ everywhere. They are the loudest thing to step on. The weather was absolutely perfect. No fog, no rain, almost non-existent wind, perfect temperature not too cold or hot and no bugs flying on me! Perfection. The whole sky was covered with clouds and only in a few places was the sky peeping out. When I first came to my spot I saw deer close by. I tried to approach slowly waiting for them to see me and run but they wouldn’t budge. I don’t believe they were friendly with humans but I don’t believe they were scared off by them. Though, as I inched closer one of the two deer would inch casually closer to the woods until disappearing. When the other deer realized the other had left it turned to look at me since I wasn’t to far from it (closer than 20ft) then walked in the same direction as the other deer. Both was so calm and it was fun to finally observe them without them running away.
While that was happening I heard a lot of crickets and night cicadas which sound so pretty unlike the day cicadas ones that sound like someone screeching at you. No cicadas or crickets bothered me they only kept doing chirping noises, which is the most relaxing thing to listen to. A new experience for me was realizing that if there was a noise I couldn’t see always what it was, like the footsteps I heard. They were too light to be deer or human but it was coming near me. I eventually slowly started retreating backwards until I didn’t hear it near me. That was the only scary part of my sit spot. I’m not sure what it was but it could have been a fox or my two cute raccoons (which always come to see me) I think I might try doing my sit spot during dusk again if I had the proper equipment to see better and maybe something to scare off an animal if it came too close to me. It was a very relaxing time but there wasn’t a lot of animals or light so it made observing anything harder. (Here’s a video of one)
The two items of three did change. My pokeberry got eaten even more (if that’s even new) and looked like it needed to be watered. The leaves were no longer soft looking and more wrinkled and started to shrivel a little. My thorn plant had lost some leaves and looked like it also needed to be watered as well. It doesn’t look as overgrown as it did before. My branch looks the same nothing too crazy or anything new has happened with that item.
That’s so cool you saw a raccoon!!! I’ve never seen a live one in the wild before…it’s interesting that you’ve seen them before!
Never seen a raccoon before, so its super cool you seen one and even got a video of one! Also, I did not know what a cicadas was until your post, so thanks for educating me!
I love raccoons! I liked the video, it was adorable. Also, I never thought I would ‘hear’ someone describe cicadas and crickets as pretty, so this has been an experience.