I arrived at my sit spot at dusk, and stayed there from 6:02 to 6:31pm. I’ve never been there for any other sit spot assignment, but I think I might’ve gone once on my own. This time, though, was most convenient for me to use for this blog because it’s after my typical work day, so it didn’t feel like a chore.

Since my last session, I noticed there were a lot more honeysuckle berries growing on trees around me. The temptation to eat the just slightly toxic berries was exceptional. Alas, I stopped myself after hearing Liz’s disappointed “Meiiii” in my head. There were also more tiny seedlings and shrubs – probably the fall replacements from last season’s plants – beginning to show in the ground. While it’s difficult to truly tell, I think there also may have been more dead leaves on the ground this time.

It was a bit windy, warm, and moist; it had rained just a few hours before I arrived. No mud puddles, unfortunately. The sky was clear, grayish blue, and orange around E extending into SE due to the sun setting. I heard some type of birds call out to each other west of me, loud, screechy, unpatterned, with only a single chirp at a time from each bird. I haven’t heard them before; maybe they migrated here recently. Toward the end of my session, I saw a large group of a very tiny bird species. I thought they were leaves on a tree from far away at first; I’m sure you can imagine the “wtf” experience, seeing them fly out all at once. From the west, where they’d all be standing on the branches of the same leafless tree, they’d start screeching over each other very loudly for around 1-3 minutes, suddenly quiet down all at once, then take off together northwards, regroup within a few minutes, and repeat. I’m not sure what was happening, but it was really cool to watch. It looked like they were running drills.

Overall, my experience during this time of day was probably my favorite because it was stress- and bug-free. I’d do it again, as it was also a decent way to relax and unwind. 

Compared to my last session here, the greatest difference experience-wise is that there were definitely way less insects visible. This could be either because many of them are only active during the day, or because it had rained recently. There were no specific organisms I saw this time that I didn’t last time, that I think is directly due to the time of day I was there. However, as the bird calls and songs I heard were very different from the ones I typically hear in the daytime, there were likely some birds there that are more active at dusk.