Field Study #2

Date: September 27 

Time: 1:30-2:30 

Weather: Clear, sunny 

Temperature: 67°F 

Length of day: 11 hours, 55 minutes 

 Observations: Today I noticed many new things. I noticed that there are lots of roots sticking out of the bank of the clearing from erosion. I also notice that a lot of the grass and weeds in and along the creek are flattened. I wonder if part of that was from the creek rising with the large amount of rain we got a week ago. I also noticed that the main fallen tree in my plot is actually not a "fallen tree". With closer observations I noticed that it is just falling into the creek. It has many roots in the water but also on land. It also has many, many very large branches laying on the ground that extend then go up into what looks like a whole separate tree. I think this tree must be ancient it is very wide and has massive branches leading into what I originally thought were whole other decent sized trees. It is awesome how even as it started partially falling into the water it adapted to what it had available and grew from the ground in a different way. I also saw and heard many bees on some flowers I was sketching. On the way to my plot I found some deer scat and lots of deer prints as well as several other animal tracks and evidence. The water felt relatively cold today. I heard many insects and more birds this visit. There were also definitely many more leaves on the ground and not many berries in the trees anymore. The mushroom I saw last time is much darker and looks as if it may be dyeing. Comparing between my two pictures of the same scene I think that the greenery in my plot has turned a little yellower as we get into fall from my last visit to this one. It will be interesting to see how it continues to change more.

 

 

The first picture shows how the plants were flattened. The second picture shows the mushroom I've been observing.  

 

These are some pictures that of the tree that is falling into the water but growing out in other directions. In the second picture you can see one part of it that is going straight up and the large branches in the front of the picture come out from the tree as well. 

 

There is a bee in the first picture and the second one is of some deer scat I found. 

 

I found lots of different animal tracks. 

  

The first picture has more animal tracks. The second picture shows some of the exposed roots on the bank. 

This is my original research project. I chose to do dissolved oxygen and on my first trial the water had about 8 ppm of oxygen.