This spot is behind a family member’s house in Neptune, New Jersey, and borders a small lake. I think this area is beautiful and I enjoyed observing it on a deeper level for this post. The bigger trees consisted of spruce and oak, and many had a lot of ivy growing up them. The leaves of the oak were mostly gone except one tree, which had quite a few left. The understory was patchy and consisted of sweet pepperbush (I think) that seemed almost dead or the leaves almost falling off. There was a very clear buffer next to the lake of common reed, that probably preserves the health of the lake and land around it. The only animal species I saw was a few squirrels and a bird off in the distance. This place is not that different from my place in Vermont; they both border a body of water and they both have hardwood trees like oak. However, my place does not have any spruce trees or ivy. The soils of the places are also very different because Salmon Hole Park is very sandy while this place is not. I also found this really cool moss (last picture) on the other side of their house that was very thick, soft, and spans across a huge area of their yard. It is clear that it has been there for a long time (before my family moved there).
