Sit Spot Blog #4

Sit Spot #4, 10-28-2020

Morgana Costanzo

            I arrived at my sit spot at 1:38 p.m. to once again find where I would be sitting altered. The chair had been moved back about 5 more feet and was sopping wet. I finally decided I wanted the bench back (which had also been moved again), so after a couple struggle filled moments, I had replaced the wet, plastic chair with the formerly used white bench. Hopefully it wasn’t being moved around randomly for a reason, although I can’t really think of one.

I began my 15 minutes of concentrated focus by observing the stream. As usual, the water striders swam lazily across the water’s surface, and some birds chirped here and there. I heard one call loudly to my near left, but if flew away before I could catch a glimpse of it. I noticed a gray squirrel digging around in the grass almost directly across the stream from me. He dug and dug, moved over a few inches and dug some more. He stayed in roughly the same spot for a couple minutes, and I continued to keep an eye on him as I looked around. I could hear the crickets singing, the birds traveling back and forth, and the rustling of leaves as they gracefully fell from the trees. The sky was overcast but the air was warm, creating both a peaceful and menacing mood. I hoped the rain would hold out long enough for me to finish, and luckily it did.

I began to start journaling my observations when I heard a loud CRUNCH right beside me on my left. Naturally, I jumped a bit and looked straight over to see what had made the sound. It was a gray squirrel, staring straight at me, little hands raised and tail twitching. Then it walked a few feet away and began digging. Out of sheer curiosity, I looked across the stream and found that the squirrel that had been digging there mere seconds ago had disappeared, which was odd. I looked back at the squirrel, recognizing its behavior, and in that moment I realized that not only was it the same squirrel, but that it had made a great leap of faith across the stream, its, banks, and the surrounding grass, and I had missed it. He slowly made his way across the garden, continuing his treasure hunt.

As expected, the organisms/objects that I have been following have changed since my last visit. The Virginia sweetspires are now almost bare except for just a handful of red-purple leaves. The oak has only lost a small portion of leaves since I last saw it, but nearly every single leaf on the tree is now dead, brown, and shriveled. I wondered why some trees, such as the oaks, hold onto their leaves until they are completely dead, whereas other have littered the campus with their bright and vibrant colors.

The stream has changed as well. The water level was a bit lower today than usual, and I noticed that the algae that I noticed last time has grown and spread significantly, which confused me. Why is algae prospering at the end of the turn of the season? The trees are almost bare, daylight hours have gotten shorter, and the temperature is getting colder. How are those conditions more beneficial to algae than the bright, warm conditions of summertime? I could not think of an answer.

The only organism that I identified during my last visit that was still present there today was the Virginia sweetspire. It has lost more leaves since my last visit, but otherwise has remained the same. Because the other two organisms I had identified were insects, I did not see them again. I did, however, see two new insects. I heard a loud buzzing in my backpack, which I foolishly left open. I looked over, and the buzzing stopped. I went back to writing and it started again. This went on about 5 times before I finally moved over to investigate. A giant, fat, lazy bug flew out. I have no idea what it was, but it was orientating its body vertical as it flew away. It flew slowly, like a bumble bee, which is definitely was not. I didn’t get the cance to photograph it. When I looked down I saw a neon green spider on my bag as well, which did not please me. I was able to photograph and identify this one, which turned out to be a Mognolia green jumping spider. This name also did not please me, as I was not in the mood to have a neon green spider jump on me. To my dismay, it then scurried down into the depth of my backpack. I decided I would worry about that later.

I chose a meter² plot to focus my attention on for 15 minutes. This area was a section of ground directly in front of the left side of the bench. It was composed mostly of wet soil, with large patches of fuzzy, green moss. After a few minutes I noticed a few tiny black ants running around in the plot area. I also noticed a footprint in the mud, which turned out to be mine. From the soil grew tiny weeds, clovers, and a single tuft of thin grass. Dead oak leaves were scattered across the plot area, as well as some long, dead pine needles. A few small and dried out helicopter seeds were in the plot area too, as well as a couple of leaves I did not recognize. I watched an ant frantically carry a small crumb through the jungle of moss and leaves, and wondered if it had come from my lunch, which I had brought with me to save time. Suddenly, I heard a loud and angry cry from a nearby tree to my north, followed by a small slamming sound. I looked up, breaking my concentration, and searched for the critter responsible. At first I thought maybe it was just an angry squirrel, as I had witnessed one screaming and banging and chewing an acorn in a tree a couple weeks ago. After a minute I finally spotted the perpetrator. It was not an angry squirrel, but the smallest Pileated woodpecker I had ever seen. It stopped screaming and I went back to watching my plot for the last few minutes of my focus, but with my concentration broken, I noticed nothing new.

I spent 5 more minutes just relaxing and taking in the surrounding nature of my sit spot before taking my leave at 2:43 pm.

Before and after shots from my first journal entry and this journal entry.