I decided to do this sit-spot during the daytime. I arrived at 3:30 pm, which is similar to times that I have done observations in the past. My last sit-spot was during dusk and I wasn’t sure if the lack of animals near the creek was due to the change in weather or due to the time of day. I chose to do my sit-spot during the day this time so that I could compare my observations to my previous daytime observations. This would allow me to see the actual cause of the lack of animals in my last sit-spot.

 

It was pretty cold outside, and the wind was blowing strong. It was very overcast with many clouds in the sky, so it was fairly dark outside. The trees at my sit-spot had lost almost all of their leaves, so the ground was completely covered in fallen brown leaves. A lot of the grass had also died. It seemed that there was a specific type of grass that had died, while the other types were still living. The type that had died seemed taller and sturdier with small leaves. I wonder why these grasses died so early than compared to the other grasses. The whole landscape of the creek had changed since almost all of the leaves had fallen from the trees. However, I did still see some green on the trees in the form of vines of ivy that were covering the trunks of about 11 trees from what I could count.

 

I saw a small group of flies flying together about 7 feet above the creek. I wonder why they were all flying so high above the creek. I feel like you would expect them to be flying closer to the creek. It is interesting that they all seemed to swarm together above the exact same spot. I wonder what it was that attracted them all to each other and to the same spot. I also saw squirrels running around on the other side of the creek, like always. They are always so loud that I don’t even need to see them to know that they are there. They were especially loud this time because of all of the leaves on the ground for them to rustle in.

 

I really enjoyed doing my sit-spot observations. However, I did not notice anything out of the ordinary. I think that the lack of animals is due to the change in temperature and not based on the time of day that I decided to observe. There was not really a difference in the organisms that I observed at dusk versus the daytime. I think that I will continue to do my observations during the day because it is not as cold as dusk.

 

The three things that I have decided to follow throughout the course of the semester did not change very much from the last time that I made observations. The tree to my left had lost almost all of its leaves which revealed how flaky its bark is. The plant to my left only had about three leaves remaining, and they barely even looked like leaves because of how shriveled up they were. Lastly, the branch lying in the water had collected many leaves that were sitting on it, but the branch itself had not changed.