davidan625's Journal

Today, I went out to the Houghton Garden. On the way to the garden, I could already feel the coming of Fall, as the roads were full of fallen leaves of red and yellow. In the garden, I immediately saw that a lot of plant species that were green the previous weeks have now gone brown or fallen to the ground. Yet, I still found some plant species that are still lively and even with seeds or fruits. On the rocks, there still existed green mosses, an example of bryophyta. I also caught some plants that sort of looked like ferns(polypodiopsida) but it turned out to be a different plant species when I checked in with iNaturalist suggestions. Obviously, there were a bunch of evergreen trees (gymnosperms) but some of them were cut down to their stumps so I couldn't figure out which tree species it exactly was. I also found some plants with red and green fruits(angiosperms), among all those plants that were withering and turning brown.

Weather was good, so I took a walk to Webster Conservation area until I reached Hammond Pond. This time, I entered the woods from a different path that was nearer from my dorm and I liked it better than the last time since it was more quiet and remote (last time, I took a walk too close to the street and the traffic was too loud). The difference I noticed was that many of the plant species I observed from the previous walk turned brown and withered (I could directly feel the change in season and weather). For this reason, there wasn't as many fungi species as I expected, or those remaining species already turned brown. Luckily, I found one spot where I found three different fungi species (or at least they looked different) on a lineage of dead logs. Thinking this with the lens of our class materials, I wondered how diverse can such a small area be when it's distant from human intervention, and I thought it as a proof for how human activities have destructed a large portion of biodiversity. At about 40 minutes after I started walking, I finally reached the Hammond pond and saw a herd of different birds gathered around on a tiny rock (couldn't get the picture). Overall, this was better than the last time because I could feel the nature more intimately, away from the city.

I took a walk along Beacon street to finally finding out a way to get into the Webster Conservation area. At first I thought there would be an official entry to the conservation area, but walking continuously along the Beacon street I could find a tiny entry along with a board that indicates this is the right place. Anyway, I walked into the area, and it was too noisy near the entry because of cars racing down the street, so I decided to go further into the area. I really tried to take those agile little chipmunks into my camera but all I could find were various plant species. As I go deeper into the area I started to spot more sounds of wildness, birds chirping, occasional rustling sounds by chipmunks, etc. I found colorful fungi species living close by on a huge log, and they were by far the most interesting species I've found during the trip. I wanted to find out more animals than plants, and though I spotted a few chimunks and squirrels I couldn't take them by camera. Obviously, I encountered a lot of insects but I was too busy driving them away from my face, so couldn't get their photos either. If I have to define this area as one of different types of biodiversity I learned in class, it would be a small alpha diversity. I decided that for my next nature walk I should go to a larger area so I can capture more diverse species. Overall, it was a space where I could feel nature and get a feeling of "biodiversity" more intimately, and get good exercise too.