Field Study #5

Today was a beautiful day, and I made some exciting observations!

Field Notes

Date: Monday, November 13, 2023

Time: 3:25pm-3:45pm

Climate Conditions: Sunny, clear blue skies

Temperature: 55℉

Length of Day: 7:03am-5:54pm (10 hours, 51 minutes)

Organism Observations:

    My most exciting observation was also the first observation I made when I got to my spot. I looked down at the trail and I was so excited to see two types of animal tracks! There were deer tracks throughout the trail, and the other set of tracks came from an animal I couldn't identify. They were paw prints with long claws. Each paw print had 4 claws. I'm thinking it might be a raccoon. Of course, it could have been a dog, but dogs don't usually have very long claws, so I think the tracks were from a wild animal. I was really excited when I found the animal tracks. One of the reasons I chose this specific area of the park for my field study was because I hoped to see animal tracks (There were wild apples in my 30x30, a potential food source for some animals, so I thought I might see animal tracks there).

    I heard a lot of the usual sounds- crickets, cicadas, birds. I also heard something moving in the branches. It sounded like a squirrel or a little animal.

    The nest I drew during my last visit is still there. The tree that holds it is completely bare now, so it's easier to see.

    There are still some clusters of small green plants/weeds (Is there a difference between plants and weeds in wild areas?) growing on one side of the trail.

    I saw a tree with moss growing all over it. I also saw a tree with twisted branches that looked sort of "hairy" or "fuzzy." That probably sounds really weird, but it's hard to explain, so I'll just include a picture later in this post.

Changes Since Last Visit:

    I noticed that the trail seemed more alive today than it has for a while. I saw a small white moth fly past. I haven't seen any butterflies or moths since September, so this surprised me. Also, aren't butterflies and moths supposed to fly south for the winter? I thought they would have flown south by now, but apparently not.

    Everything appeared to have a drier, crispier texture than before. For example, the leaves look faded, dry, and crispy. The grass has gradually turned more of a brown-ish, yellow-ish color instead of the lush green color it had on my first visit.

    There are more red berries on the trail that look like they fell more recently (The color is still very red, and they don't look rotten or squashed at all).

    The apple tree has almost no leaves left, but the apples are still there. I think it's amazing (and slightly crazy) that the tree has dropped its leaves but not its apples.

    There are lots of large oak leaves on the ground. I've seen lots of different leaves on the trail in the past few weeks, but I haven't seen many oak leaves until today.

Pictures

The "hairy" tree close up.

"Hairy" tree from farther away.

This tree has interesting, twisted branches.

I think these are deer tracks.

A trail of deer tracks!

Another set of animal tracks with paw/claw prints on the trail
(Sorry the picture isn't very good, I promise it looked way cooler in person!)

Close-up picture of one of the paw prints