Fellow Renee Godard mini ecologists! Hi, hello, how is everyone? Off the topic of ecology, but has anyone ever thought about how difficult it is to become a comedian? Like a famous one, not just the funny one in your group. Random thought, but a valid one. Let’s appreciate comedians more. Back on the topic of ecology though, today was a drab and dreary overcast day. The smell of fall and leaves and forest was divine, and was so pleasant! That’s what I miss most in this mask-wearing pandemic (maybe not the most, but I miss it a lot): smelling outside. Is that strange? Maybe, but it’s a fact. If you know, you know. During my 15 minutes of tuning in, I heard the rustling of leaves in the forest behind me, the water lapping at the shower of the cove, a cricket “chirp chirp”-ing close by, and the not-so-lovely sounds ofan airplane overhead and interstate traffic in the distance. I saw and man and his child ride along the shore on their bikes, which was very cute, as well as a bee flying from pine needle to pine needle looking rather disappointed.

I wonder if anyone else feels this way, but I feel like I followed some of the worst objects in my sit spot – they don’t seem to be changing at all! I want them to change so that I can try my best at writing something mildly poetic about changing seasons and how life changes along with it or something deep and meaningful that puts a beautiful scene in your head; alas, my three objects refuse to change. I have the pine tree with the exposed roots, who I swear has the same number of pine needles, and they aren’t even turning brown. The roots still seem to be doing well and are not as big of a worry for the tree as I imagine they would be.

Sept. 17th                                             Oct. 28th

The lichen on the embankment behind me is also just as green and spread out as it was when I first took a picture of it. Maybe I should have googled whether or not lichen changed with the seasons? Would that have been cheating? I’m not sure if lichen are temperature dependent (that feels like the wrong word) or if it stays the same year round. I’m trying to picture in my head if I’ve seen it on winter hikes, but I can’t recall. Either way, it’s going strong and seems winter-ready – by which I mean it looks unchanged whatsoever.

Sept. 17th                                           Oct. 28th

The third object that I chose to follow was my marshmallow fluff -looking mold. Today it looked as if there was some saw dust on top of it, which I wonder where the source of the saw dust is. Granted, it’s on a fallen log, but still, I didn’t think that logs just…. dusted about like that. So maybe some organism is in there chewing away at the log? I certainly don’t know. If you’ve been following along in my blogs, you’ll remember that the marshmallow fluff-mold (not a technical name btw) wasn’t even there. Originally there was an orange fringe that I was excited about, but then it died off around the time the mold appeared. In hindsight, I wish I would have measured the mold to see if it’s spread, but I did not. You know what they say, hindsight is 20/20. Please see the progress below.

Sept. 17th                                                                   Oct. 6th

 

Oct. 6th                                                              Oct. 17th                                                    Oct. 28th

   

The three things that I named with iNaturalist last time include two of the organisms listed above: the pine tree (Pinus virginiana), and the white mold (what I think is Antrodia). The third object that I named (which you already know because you read my ecology blogs religiously, I know) was the scarlet oak leaves that I saw above me. Last week they were a stunning bright red, but today there were barely any leaves left hanging on to the branches, and what were there looked very dull in color. I do love all of the colors in fall, but I get a little sad when everything gets dreary and gray/brown everywhere.

Oct. 17th                                                              Oct. 28th

The 1m2 plot that I chose to focus on included a section of the log that I sit on. The first thing that I noticed was all of the leaves – they ranged in color from dark brown, to taupe, to dull red, and every shade in between. They were all crispy, and gave a satisfying crunch when stepped upon. I noticed that a lot of the leaves had gathered against the sides of the log. I think that maybe the wind blew them there or something? I also noticed bright green sprigs of grass sprouting from underneath the leaves. There was also what I thought looked like a future tree, a mini sapling, trying to grow up from from the leaves. I broke the rules a little (I’m so sorry) and used iNaturalist to identify it as soon as I noticed it. According to the app, the mini sapling is a wild raisin tree (Viburnum nudum). It is apparently super common in the eastern United Sates. I think that there were maybe 4 or 5 different plant species in the plot I chose to focus on: maybe about 2 different types of grass coming up, the one sapling, the fallen pine needles, and maybe two different types of leaves littered in the space. There wasn’t much animal life in the plot, as there’s never much animal life around my sit spot, but I did notice a rather large black ant meandering along the top of the log, and I noticed a couple of bugs skittering to the safety of under the leaves when they saw me walking around. I know from science classes in the past that the fallen log and the leaves are decaying, but I didn’t really see any signs of it. Maybe the dulling color of the leaves is a sign? I’m unsure. Also, I did enjoy focusing in on a smaller area because 1) my eyesight sucks (even with my glasses) so it helped that I could get closer to what I was trying to look at without worrying that I would miss something else, and 2) I’m always worried that if I’m focusing on one thing, I’ll miss another thing.

Bonus side adventure: I was writing in my notebook, just scribbling away, and something made me look beside me. There was a huge spider and I screamed at a very embarrassingly high pitch. I sent a picture to my friend with a quick “SOS” text, and was quickly informed that it was a daddy long legs spider which is harmless. So the moral of this short story: try to always be observant in nature, and get better friends than the one that laughed at me for being scared. (Pencil for scale)

Thanks everyone who read this far. I know it was a little goofy and random and rambley, but in my defense I’m really tired and I still have like a million more things to do. See everyone Friday!!