Fall is here! I’m amazed at how quickly all of the leaves have changed colors. It seems like just the other day I was sweating to death, yet, on this lovely morning, I was quite chilly in the 43 degree weather. I always think I’m a winter person until it’s actually winter and I’m freezing. Then I think I’m a summer person until it’s actually summer and I’m sweating 24/7. These in between seasons are best for me, I suppose..?

I went to my sit spot on a cheerful Saturday morning. I noticed the fog rolling off of the water again, I heard the squirrels running around in the trees behind me, there were probably about a million birds chirping and cawing all around me that morning. (A million is a very un-scientific number and I’m sorry for that Renee!) It was also the first time I had gone to my spot on a weekend – it was a bit less peaceful due to that. I usually don’t see anyone once I get on the trail, but on this day I saw a man fishing with his German shepherd and a cute older couple canoeing across the lake. There was the occasional slight breeze. The fallen log that I sit on was either cold or damp, and the ground was damp as well – I attributed everything being damp from the frost the night before. While I was sitting in my spot, I decided to look straight up. The sky was clear blue, and the prettiest red leaves were above me. It was a very nice start to my morning! Oh my goodness and we can’t forget about the fish! They were jumping out in the lake again, just splashing away until the fisherman came. Those fish must be awfully smart because I didn’t see any jump after he started his fishing!

I feel like the auditory listening wasn’t as great for me. Like I said earlier, there were a good bit more people around my spot today, so I heard quite a few anthropogenic sounds mixed in with my nature sounds. I heard at least 7 different types of birds, although I didn’t think to start counting how many I heard until I was about halfway through sitting and listening.. I heard splashes in the water from the man fishing, a couple children in the distance scream, and I heard a woman discussing the cove. The woman discussing the cove was actually quite informative – she was talking about how she didn’t think that most years you could get so close to the water, so the water level must be low this year. That made me wonder if the water level was usually to the embankment behind me; if the water level was usually that high though, I imagine the trail would flood frequently. I should have looked it up, yet here we are, not looking it up..

On to the three species I searched with the nifty iNaturalist app!

First, I started with the very vibrant red leaves above me. This picture doesn’t do justice to how red the leaves are! The iNaturalist app said that the tree was definitely an oak (Quercus) tree. One of the suggestions though was a scarlet oak (Quercus coccinea) which looks similar and has been seen near our area. The USDA Zones that this oak spreads is from Zone 4 to Zone 9, which basically covers most of the continental United States, excluding the southern tip of Florida. The scarlet oak is aptly named for its scarlet fall foliage, which is a brighter shade of red.

The second species that I searched with the iNaturalist app was the tree that I’m keeping track of with the roots exposed. This is also the web that I chose to watch for ten minutes during this sit spot, but that’s a bit unrelated! This tree, I’m sure to everyone’s surprise, is a pine tree!  Technically a Virginia Pine (Pinus virginiana), but a beautiful tree nonetheless! I was very happy to have confirmation that the tree was a pine, and that I hadn’t been referring to it as the wrong type of tree!

 

The third and final species…. *drumroll please* … is undetermined. It’s the puffy white fungus that I found last time, that replaced my orange fringes (RIP Calocera cornea, you will be missed), but I’ve decided that the fungus reminds me of a

toasted marshmallow. It’s gotten a bit gray-brown at the edges now, and iNaturalist was not a fan of everything that was going on with it. The app tried its best, but it wasn’t confident enough to make a recommendation. Out of the top ten suggestions they gave me, I think that Antrodia looks the most like my toasted marshmallow fungus. Google said that Antrodia is found is temperate and boreal forests, although I also read that there are 21 species of Antrodia found in North America, so I haven’t really narrowed it down any.

Overall, I think that I’ll use the iNaturalist app often, whenever I am out amongst the wilderness. I also think that I will not go back to my sit spot on a Saturday, especially Saturday when it’s nice out! The tree items that I chose to track are doing well – the Virginia Pine tree with exposed roots, the lichen under the trees on the embankment,  and the strange burnt-marshmallow fungus that may or may-not be Antrodia. I think that this sit spot proved how our other sense pick up the slack, per se, like if we have our eyes closed, we can focus on listening more. Yay sit spots!