Walk through Pine Tree Reserve and Part of the Reservoir

After classes I went for a walk with my friend around Pine Tree Reserve, down to a wooden trail by the Chestnut Hill Reservoir, and back through Pine Tree Reserve for one more lap on our way back. The weather was perfect for a walk at around 2:00pm, since the temperature was in the 60s and it was mostly sunny with some clouds of shade (honestly my ideal weather). In a place like Pine Tree Reserve where its on campus and is a frequent spot for people to stop and sit or walk around, there weren't any animals or any insects during this part of the walk. Instead, there were lots of fun and interesting plant species, including lots of brightly colored flowers and LOTS of different ferns. Of all the plants that we saw during this walk, half of them (if not more) were ferns since they covered most of the ground on several parts of the trail. On the way to the Reservoir trail that we found, I saw a bright blue grape-like berry growing on a vine along the gate which immediately caught my eye. Looking at the coloring of that plant and the practically neon orange mushroom that we found when walking on one of the partially fallen trees, I thought about the evolutionary benefits of being so brightly colored in these mostly-green environments. While the blue fruit was actually edible for humans (after looking up the plant on the walk), it gave an appearance of being poisonous and toxic due to its bright, almost unnatural color compared to the green plants surrounding it. This is a trait that could have similar benefits to the viceroy's orange coloring that mimicked the monarch butterflies: it deters predators since they will assume it is poisonous, allowing the plant to continue to survive and pass along these colorful traits to their offspring. We did see a couple animals on our walk as well, including the photographed blue jay, a couple of chipmunks, a heron sitting on a rock in the water, and a couple of swans that were too far away to properly photograph. There weren't many interesting organisms to identify on the part of the walk that went around the reservoir (which explains the gap in observation times, plus we had to climb down from a tree which took a little bit), but once we got back to Pine Tree Reserve for one final lap I wanted to document the sheer number of ferns that were in the area. This walk was a great way to ease into the Nature Walk assignments, and I'm super excited to continue these walks!

Posted on September 30, 2022 04:30 AM by audreyb3380