I entered my sit-spot at 11:20 AM. The red maple tree that greeted me with its flaming leaves last week looked a little faded in its yellow color with some hint of red. Many of its brown dry leaves were lying on the ground. I enjoyed crushing them like a kid for a while. I was able to notice some birds and insects noises. It felt like they were welcoming me back to the spot.
As I saw my sit-spot, my brain immediately tried to compare it with my last sit-spot observation. The spot looks much browner and the trees look naked without their leaves. The horizontal line of trees to the south has completely lost their leaves and we can easily see the hill behind it. I initially thought that I did not find any change in my yellow flower. But looking at the before and after pictures, I realized that all of its leaves have turned brown and dry and some are still held by its stem. I wonder how long they will take to fall off to the ground. We can see that comparing the before and after pictures are really helpful.
focal object #1: trees to my south (before)
focal object #1: trees to my south (after)
focal object #2: yellow flower (before)
focal object #2: yellow flower (after)
focal object #3: clouds around Tinker Mountain (before)
focal object #3: clouds around Tinker Mountain (after)
As tracking the cloud patterns was one of my focal objects, I was excited about this cloud-focused observation. Unfortunately, it was a clear deep blue sky kind of day. I was surprised to find that one long light low altitude cloud around Tinker mountain. I believe that it a dissipated cumulus cloud after a clear sky. It did not move at all while I was observing it. I enjoyed the amazing blue sky and the scorching sun. It was a little windy at times as well and I was able to capture the trees and shrubs swaying to the call of the wind.
I wanted to do closed eyes auditory observation as I feel like it is less distracting. But I was happy to see some birds coming my way and I decided to observe them instead. There were around seven small-sized brown birds coming from the north. They landed on a tree that had no leaves to itself. Although they all stayed on the same tree, I was surprised to see that they were on different branches. I wonder if their senses have any preferences over the trees they choose to stay at. It seemed like some pairs of those birds were just playing with each other by flying here and there near the tree. A minute after that, I saw around eight medium-sized blackbirds flying towards my sit-spot from the south-west direction. They decided to just stay there flying in circles. As time passed, more of those birds joined in. Majority of my observation passed by seeing them just flying in the sky. I wonder if they were looking for a tree to stay in or food to hunt. Those birds flew away together and so did the small brown birds. The small birds flew towards the same direction they came from whereas the medium birds went towards the north.
Observing those birds was the favorite part of my observation. With every sit-spot observation, I realize the importance of tuning into our surroundings and appreciating them for that space that they have provided us. I love that we have been observing the same spot every time as detecting changes in this spot has been so fun. I will continue observing this space in the future as well and check if I will detect any major changes over my Hollins years. I left my sit-spot at 12:30 PM.
Hey Shuvee!
This is nice.
I can imagine you crushing the dry leaves like a kid.
Those “crush-crush” sounds surely made you feel good.
You should be a great nephologist to have decided to focus on cloud patterns initially.
Wow. Once again, I learn the name of a special tree in America (red maple).
Simran talked about the sweet gum tree in her blog post.
I find all these names alongside the trees, beautiful!!!
Hi Shuvechchha! I totally agree that before and after pictures give us a better insight into the changes that happened over time. I enjoyed looking at your video of dancing leaves
All of the pictures are really nice!
I like how you observed the birds in the sky. Looking at the sky is my favorite thing to do while sitting outside.
Nice blog post – pretty amazing to see the difference in the sky as well as your objects – your cloud study would have been different on your first day compared to this blog – but the deep blue of the sky was pretty amazing.
The before and after photos in your post are great! It’s so cool to witness change in an environment like that. I love the part about the birds, my favorite thing about my sit spot always involves birds as well! I love keeping an eye out for them.