I arrived in Beale Garden for Dawn at about 6:30am on November 8th. The sunrise that day was at 6:53am, so I had gone at the perfect time to watch. I had never been to Beale Garden that early in the morning before, but I chose to go at dawn specifically because I have always been a big fan of sunsets, as I’m sure we all are but wanted to see something different. Thus, the opposite, sunrise.

There was a chill in the air as I was arriving at my sit spot, probably sub-50°s, but I knew it would gradually warm up as the sun made its way over the mountains. There was a slight breeze, but I honestly expected it to be colder than it was given that we are in the midst of November now. By the time I was wrapping up on my journal, the sky was a bright blue, as the sun was all the way up by that point, had lit up the sky, and there were no clouds in view.

Since my last session, a chunk of grass directly in front of my sit spot has turned brown, and a substantial amount of the garden has been sprinkled with leaves. Fortunately enough, there is still enough shade under the trees, which is a good thing since the temperature was steadily increasing.

There were quite a few squirrels rustling around in the bushes, and there are two chasing each other, while a third ran up a tree with food in his mouth. I have seen one or two around the garden during previous sessions, but never this many. I also heard some birds chirping, but I couldn’t see any of them directly but could pick up at least two different calls that they were doing.

I had never been to my sit spot during dawn, but it was a lot quieter than I anticipated because there were a lot less human activity and foot traffic. It was certainly a much calmer time of day, and a lot quieter compared to my last session. I enjoyed coming out at this time of day to my sit spot, and I would love to do it again if I can make myself get up this early again!

All the organisms I encountered had been unique to this session as I typically don’t see many animals while I am there. Typically, there are just a lot of bugs. This could definitely be due to how early it is, or just because of the lack of human traffic. This especially related to all the bird calls and songs that I heard throughout the morning, something I’m usually not lucky enough to encounter.