Date: 11/21/2019
Time: 4:05 pm
Time out: 5:00 pm
Temperature: 53 F
After days, today was a beautiful one with a good temperature. I was excited to do my blog spot. I went to my blog spot and I was seriously disappointed looking at how sad everything looked. It looked barren and very grey and brown. But one great thing about this is that there are no longer bugs that bite me. The spot that was once yellow and beautiful is now completely the opposite. There were bare leaves on the trees, except in a few around. The sweetgum tree along with one more tree seemed much more intact with green leaves around. There wasn’t
a lot of wind around and the spot felt very silent and calm. It now seems like fall took everything away with it.
Once I was settled, I went to the three species/organisms of interest:
- Winterberry Cherry: The plant is completely barren. The white fungus that I had seen before is now almost gone but I still see the fuzzy white things on it. There were no leaves and no winterberry cherries left. The fungus now gave an impression of things growing on them making it look like it was completely dead.
- Water Striders: The stream is now completely dried up. The waterfall is now gone. There are small puddles in the stream where they are deeper. There are so many brown leaves on the stream that even if there were any striders, they wouldn’t be seen. I believe I saw one in the stream which is very low compared to what I have noticed earlier.
- Twigs/branches: there were no branches or leaves on the ground. There were some workers earlier who cleaned up the place around campus which could be why there were no leaves on the floor and hence no twigs either. There was a lot of leaf litter on the floor which took me back to thinking about the decomposition experiment that we are doing in class. Maybe these litters are taking care of decomposition other leaves.
I now tried to work with emotions in nature. Being in nature and calming myself down was one of the best things I could do at this time of the semester. Based on the instructions I tried to work my way through. For the first 5 minutes, I tried to listen with my eyes open. I was very distracted in the first minute. Every sound around me triggered me to move and look at the source of it. I couldn’t focus on just one thing and if I did I would forget about the rest. My attention was hazy. By the time I felt like I had gotten my grip, it was time for me to close my eyes and listen. The feeling now was completely the opposite. I was able to listen to everything going around me if not farther away from me. I felt like the birds were talking to me, like the squirrels fighting near me were playing around me. I could hear the chirping of birds even from a distance. It felt like I was in the center of everything.
I opened my eyes to see two birds flying around the tree right in front of me. It was that tree where no leaves had fallen. One of the birds was red and the other was grey, although they looked like they were exactly of the same breed. They were chasing each other chirping on the tree with the cherries. I looked at a tree nearby that looked so different from this one. My friend had told me how that tree was called the snake tree because it sheds its barks. I took the base of the tree as my reference to the 1 square meter of habitat. I saw some bark pieces on the floor that must have fallen down. At the same time, I saw the layers of bark that the trees had. There seemed to be layers and layers of them, that would slowly peel off at its own rate. On the ground of the tree, I saw some litter. I tried going near the tree and moved the litter. I saw a bug struggling to hold on to its life. The bug was definitely about to die. I was scared of the bug and I pushed myself back in a second, making me lose the insect. The tree looked so fragile like it was the oldest one there. Seeing that no squirrels or birds went near it, it felt like this tree was the one that everyone was scared of. Nearby a huge tree that somewhat looked like the friendly kind had a huge hole in it which seemed like a house for birds like one would see in a movie.
I think you saw some Red Cardinals with the pair of birds you saw. Since the males are red while the females are brown, I saw a lot of them when I was doing my last blog post.
I wonder what happens to the water striders when the water level goes down and eventually becomes nothing. How long do they live? Do they make it through winter?
I totally forgot about how much the bugs were bothering me in the beginning. You’re so right about how they’re finally gone!! Best part of winter
Haha, I thought your comment about the bugs was funny! I can agree with getting the creepy-crawlies with the ‘risk’ of a bug crawling on you and taking a big bite! Also, loved how you wrote in a narrative style that got straight to the point!
Keep up the good work!
Wow! I wonder if the water striders are still there in lower number even though the water is mostly gone. How will they survive in the winter? Do they lay eggs in a place that will hatch when it’s warmer?
The snake tree sounds very interesting!
I found the Sweet gum tree fruits from your tree in my sit spot. I guess we share that in common huh! I was also looking for the water striders but no such luck. but did you notice the puddles that remain also ripple? I love that there are no bugs too, those were difficult to deal with. I loved how you wrote your blog with careful attention to details. Good Job!!
Great details! I loved the pictures. I feel sad about the water striders. Will they survive the winter? And as someone said in the comment section, I think it will be fun to research about where they lay their eggs.
Love that you got to see the cardinals – male and female! lovely pictures and details. Good work!