Laura Wampler

9-23-2020

 Cloudy; 66°F

Arrived: 5:02PM

Departed: 6:39PM

Thankfully, it hasn’t been as cold as it previously was this week; I’ve found that the evenings aren’t too terrible, but the mornings are sort of dreadful in the cold (personally, anyway. I just need more hoodies). When I visited my sit-spot today, I found that the water did not seem to be as high as it was last time, or I just have absolutely no grasp on what it looked like the first time. My memory is terrible anyway. The water was extra clear this evening, and I spent most of my visit peering into it to see what I could see. I hate myself for not taking more pictures, but I also did not want to worry about capturing the moment over experiencing my surroundings to full potential. There were these two little fishes that insisted on following each other around, one larger than the other; I am not exactly sure what breed they were, but they were fast. I’m not sure what their mission was because I am not a fish and would have absolutely no way of knowing that but at least they are sticking together! It was very sweet to see. I could not explain to a single one of you why I feel empathy for fish and their little fish friends, or why I am wholly convinced they were best friends, but somewhere… deep in my soul… I know this to be true. Anyway, I cannot stand those little bugs that glide on the water. It took a lot of staring, but I’ve realized that they are actually underneath the water? They are upside down and using the water tension to keep themselves attached to the surface. This one bug would NOT under ANY CIRCUMSTANCES stop following this crayfish that was just trying to wander around and live his life. I enjoy seeing the tiny little pinchers of crayfish. They’re so tiny. I love it. In my hometown, you were able to find them everywhere; which totally makes sense because I barely live more than three hours away. The animal species cannot be THAT different…

My sit-spot is located riiiiight at the bridge near the front of campus. You can hear the traffic clearly and there is even a path that leads right out of campus on the other side of the bridge. To get to my spot, all you really have to do is follow the little concrete path that is between the health center and the museum. There is a bridge that crosses a stream that is also fun to look at. Today when I stopped on my way to my actual sit-spot, I saw a crayfish just walking around. There are plenty of butterflies out and about, too. Anyway, if you follow that path, you will come to the road that leads outside of campus. Cross it (There is a cross-walk!) and there sit the bridge and creek! It is a super easy spot and all of us have already visited it for the stream lab. That is why I felt so guilty about my choice; I barely had to search at all! This evening, I was thankful that the traffic wasn’t too horrendous. It was cloudy outside so it was the perfect weather to really just sit and have a look, you know? There was nothing in particular regarding smell that I would point out; It smelled like outdoors!

I’ve noticed that one of my focuses, the little purple plant, isn’t blooming as much anymore; there are fewer blooms on it than I remember. I believe this is because of the sudden cold front.

I doubt it will bloom during the fall and winter months. I’m going to try to pin-point the exact day or week that it stops blooming altogether. Maybe if I can identify it (It is probably very easy to do, I am just always at a loss) and do a little research, I can see if it stopped blooming later or earlier than what is usual for the type of plant. Also, thanks to Dr Gleim, I now know that the tree I chose to watch truly is an ash tree infected with Emerald Ash Borer (EAB) which is a type of exotic beetle. They apparently kill a–

–WHOLE lot of trees every year with infestations. From what I have seen, they attack trees of all sizes and health. I’ve noticed that the branches sprouting from the lower trunk of the tree have leaves that seem to be wilting and dying faster than the leaves on the surrounding trees. I am not sure if it is due to fall coming around or because the tree seems to be dying due to the infestation. Also, the tree has not changed. It is still going strong, I assume growing at a steady pace, and the leaves are still as green as the other foliage surrounding it. It will make for really good canopy cover on that side of the creek once it grows further. I know that

our lab last week, where we waded, we saw this bird that was- sort of freaky looking? I mean, I do not tend to loiter around water a lot, so I do not see a lot of species of birds that hang around water besides ones like… ducks and geese. I think one of the animals I would enjoy seeing would be a grebe, but they tend to stick to the west coast. Did you know grebes eat their own feathers? And a lot of them, too, because it protects their stomach or something. Birds are cool :). It was really hard for me to find adaptations, even though I was in a spot that was heavy with wildlife and other living things. I am not sure if it counts, but maybe the leaves falling off of the trees already? I would go ahead and say that the tree I photographed and poorly formatted into the blog somewhere is adapting to the colder weather already. There are plenty of leaves floating away in the stream, even if all of the healthy green leaves surrounding the bank do not seem like they are already falling off! I wasn’t fond of getting back into the stream already, but I was able to get a closer look at the bank and the surrounding areas. The plant life is very dense on the side of the stream. Regardless of if I wanted to, I touched a lot of bugs that I probably could have gone without making contact with. With my exploring, a lot of it was looking at the difference between all of the algae growing downstream compared to upstream. Just turning around makes the stream appear so much different, as it is absolutely covered in algae! I love exploring, and sometime soon before it becomes too cold to do so, I will get back into the stream to take better pictures for everyone :).

I also saw a few more of those weird dead caterpillars that are being fed off of by some parasite? Here is a–

–picture that I took when we entered the stream; It can be a bit difficult to make out, but it appears to be empty sacs of some sort attached to worms. All the ones I have seen have been either dead or in the process of dying…

 

That’s gross.

 

 

 

 

Anyway, see you next week :^)