jacobgoodgame's Journal

I took my walk in the mid-afternoon, while the sun was shining and a light breeze carried the fallen leaves onto and across the path. The dead leaves were layered thick on the ground, which perhaps camouflaged some animals I would have otherwise seen. I noticed no mammals, which was unexpected, since I thought squirrels would have been gathering their store at this point in the season. Anyway, overturning rocks proved a reliable method of finding bugs—worms, insects, and other arthropods. I noticed that these creatures often congregate under rocks, where they presumably build their nests. I wonder why this is so, yet I suspect that the protection from birds a heavy stone affords attracts these bugs.

I was back at home this Sunday, so I decided that the wooded areas surrounding my old elementary school would offer a diversity of plants to observe. I went in the late afternoon, when the sun imparted a pleasant glow to the variously colored leaves of many trees. Most of these I can no longer remember how to identify from their leaves, but I took a few observations of them and hope they will be identified. I also observed moss and pine, but I had difficulty finding seedless vascular plants in this area. I noticed that the woods in Chestnut Hill have more ferns than the ones where I live, but i don't know what can account for this apparent regional difference; perhaps it was just by chance that I saw none today.

Today ended up being cool, typical of fall around here, with a breeze that carried on throughout my half hour here. I went around noon. It was overcast, and the soil around here was dry for the most part, which, I imagine, contributed to the difficulty of finding fungi other than lichen, though the tree stumps, dead leaves, and a couple of other green places in the area seemed to have some fungi that I am tempted to call mushrooms. It seemed that there were two or three types of lichen in the area: a white one, a light green-grey one, and perhaps a darker one, though I was not sure whether these may have been different instances of the same species. Anyway, I ended up recording as observations these other mushroom-like fungi that I found; all appeared different enough to be of different species.

I took my walk late in the morning, starting in Pine Tree Preserve on campus, and then taking a lap around the reservoir, stopping along the way to investigate the wooded areas which can be found just off the path. This area appeared to have more species of plants than did Pine Tree Preserve and appeared to be less well-managed, for much of the growth here was weedy, and the beds of decaying leaves grew quite thick. For whatever reason, I only encountered plants, lichen, and fungi—maybe I just wasn't looking closely enough!