Hello my fellow Ecology bloggers! Professor Godard asked for our second post to be a woven and interesting read. While I cannot promise that what you are about to read contains eloquent diction, I can promise that it’s probably exactly how I would say it in person and that my sit spot is really nice to look at. “Wait, Breanne, I swear you were at Carvin’s Cove last time?? Your cover photo is of mountains with some power lines. Are you lost??” The picture is on the drive to my sit spot, and I really liked it, so I figured I’d slide it in there. I promise I made it to an actual cove.

This second excursion to my sit spot was much more pleasant than last time – the sun was actually out this time! It felt like fall, and there were no other people in sight. The fog was still coming off of the water, and thicker fog was still gathered higher up in the mountains. Pine needles are starting to brown on the coniferous trees with some needles falling to the ground. The leaves on the deciduous trees are starting to turn red around the edges, but not many have fallen yet. It also looked as if the water level had gone down some (by about 0.9m), but that could be the water level just returning to normal after all of the rain we’ve had in the past week or so.

The local life was definitely present this time, as opposed to last time when it was raining. In just the first 15 minutes of observation, I saw five fish make pretty big splashes deeper out in the water! I was pretty dang excited, like I’d never seen a fish before. There were also little fish close to the shore, swimming around in their little schools. Every once in a while, you’d see little ripples from where one or more had found something interesting on the surface to investigate.

While I was preoccupied by the fish, I kept hearing a rustling in the woods behind me (NE). I had just watched the Meso-mammal pre-lab the night before, so I was actually excited to see what it was: a deer, a cat, a fox? I kept trying to get a peek whenever I heard a noise, but whatever the animal, it was stealthy. I eventually got up and saw some leaves move. I don’t know about you, but I watch a lot of crime shows and documentaries, so a murderer was one of the possibilities in my mind – it’s always the girl who’s alone that goes first, and it is spooky season after all. Then, SURPRISE!! It was just some gray squirrels jumping from tree to tree, and shortly after I spotted one, it started chattering at me. Maybe I was disturbing his or her breakfast. It was a very anti-climactic situation, where I was a little let down, honestly (no offense to the squirrels of the world). I also heard at least seven different bird calls, coming from all different directions. The most interesting of which was a pair of crows to the NW which were cawing and chattering away.

For a recap, the three things that I decided to follow were: 1) a coniferous tree at about a 45 degree angle with it’s roots exposed in the embankment it’s protruding from, 2) lichen on some rocks under trees, and 3) my cute orange fringe that I decided was probably Calocera cornea. The coniferous tree with the exposed roots to the SE is relatively unchanged other than a small amount of its needles turning brown. The lichen on the rocks (NE) look a little less vibrant to me, almost like there is a gray tinge to it. We’ll definitely keep an eye on that to see how that progresses. The poor Calocera cornea, though! It’s practically all gone, and what is left is drooping and brown. I think this may be because of the lack of rain, since it was so rainy the day I first saw it. However, there’s now some funky white fungus/moss growing. So I’ll keep an eye on that as well, if my cute orange fringey Calocera cornea doesn’t make a comeback.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The invertebrate I chose was something that I originally thought was a gnat. It’s actually called a Gerridae. According to Google, “The Gerridae are a family of insects in the order Hemiptera, commonly known as water striders, water skeeters, water scooters, water bugs, pond skaters, water skippers, Jesus bugs, or water skimmers.” While these invertebrates are interesting, they are not interesting to watch for 10 minutes straight. The Gerridae that I chose to follow kept zig-zagging around the same general area of space, seemingly pausing where algae was floating up from the bottom. I think maybe it was eating/looking for food whenever it paused? The Gerridae I chose to follow was medium size, as there were both larger and smaller Gerridae present. Let me tell you, though, they are not easy organisms to take a picture or video of – it’s the ever elusive dot streaking across the video. IMG_0081  I had found a very nice spider web which was my first choice, but I embarrassingly couldn’t find the spider!

I had a difficult time thinking of the role water plays in my sit spot. Of course I stare at it for most of the time I’m there, there’s erosion of the shore, and the water is probably what caused the embankment behind me (NE). I’m also fairly sure that my sit spot qualifies as a Riparian Zone, where nutrients are washed into the lake. I wondered if Carvin’s Cove is considered a temperate lake, and if that means that overturn occurs in the fall and spring. Could that be why the fish were so lively today, because they’re getting all the nutrients that are being stirred up? There’s more than likely a lower density of stomata on the vegetation close to the shore of the lake, as the results of our leaf stomata lab suggests. The water itself is a drinking source for animals, a source of food for birds and some of the terrestrial beings. I feel like there’s so much more, and I’m just missing it right now.. IMG_0082

The last question Professor Godard asked us to consider – before taking pictures – is to reflect on if our focus has improved at all since last time. Now, I’m a bit of an anxious person (aren’t we all), so it’s hard to keep my mind quiet. I’m always making lists in my head and on my phone about everything that’s due this week, flipping through my planner at home, trying to figure out what I’m missing. When I sat in my sit spot today though, I actually relaxed a good bit. I was more interested in what’s going on with the organisms in the present around me than what I had to do the rest of the day, week, month, whatever. I think I said this last time, but I completely understand why people continue to go to their sit spots after the semester is over.

I realize that I basically just produced a novella of some sort, and I appreciate if you’ve read this far. If you’ve talked to me outside of class, you might have realized by now that it’s hard for me to shut up sometimes. So I appreciate you, I don’t blame you if you skimmed, and please enjoy the pictures!