I decided to visit my sit-spot late at night, from 10:27 P.M. to 10:55 P.M. For as long as I have been observing my sit-spot, I have never been to the area at night, let alone if it was even remotely dark outside. Not only am I scared of being outside in the dark by myself, but I was also very skeptical about the organisms that could potentially come out and interact with me. But, I chose this spot, because I was actually intrigued about what I was scared of, and I really wanted to see how the environment my sit-spot was in would change in terms of the time of day. Prior to arriving there, I knew that not everything would be as active as it would be during the day, but I was still curious.

On this sit-spot blog, on October 28th, 2019, I arrived at my sit-spot at 10:27 P.M. The atmosphere was a little ominous, because not only do different things come out at night, but it was actually extremely dark at my sit-spot. It was very hard to pass my way through the area without shining a bright light to guide me, but I made it. The weather was dry and cold, while the ground was actually very cold and moist. Sitting on the ground was a hassle, being wet and all, but sitting helped me focus on the things I could see and hear around me. The temperature was 55 °F with no breeze, although the air was very brisk and quite cold.  

The extreme darkness, although very unapproachable, actually illuminated the things in the dark that weren’t actually dark, such as the bright colors of the fallen leaves from trees and, especially, the stars in the sky. The stars were very apparent and very beautiful against the midnight blue sky, and it immediately caught my eye as soon as I looked up. The only animals/insects that I noticed at my sit-spot was what I primarily heard, which were crickets and cicadas. The cicadas were very loud, especially in the silence of the night, and their buzzing sounds were quite apparent up in the trees. They actually were so consistent in their sounds, that they provided background noise for me as I was observing, so I barely noticed it until I intentionally searched for it. The crickets on the ground were also making their usual nocturnal call. I saw a cricket hopping near where I was sitting, but that was all I saw in terms of animals/insects; there wasn’t much activity at all, since it was nighttime. This new experience was a little worrisome for me, since I would rather not be in the dark at night, and I would probably not do it again, because the fact that it is nighttime would distract me immensely from what I really need to focus on.

One of my three things, the almost-barren tree, was even more barren than before. Actually, some parts of the tree were dead, with a pale white leaf color and distinctively pale brown branches. The remaining leaves were seen as simple alternate, a little narrow (almost tear-drop shaped) and of a pale mint green color. The stream, one of my other three things, was as stagnant as the last time I observed my sit-spot. No aquatic organisms were clearly detected to be in the very sparse stream, and there was no movement in the water, because there was no wind. Lastly, the plant with the heart-shaped leaves didn’t change at all; most of the leaves still had holes in them, their color didn’t change at all (still assorted green colors). 

What an experience!