Back home in Chicago, I chose to go to a park by my house called Horner park. It is right on the Chicago river and has lots of wildflowers and birds in the summer, and I thought it would be interesting to see how it has changed in the fall.

The left picture was taken in August, and the right was taken this past week. The space isn’t managed besides occasional trail maintenance, which I think is important because all the wildflowers are left to reseed and decompose back into the soil. This is also important in combating any chemicals that might runoff into the river.

There are tons of squirrels, as well as cardinals, finches, and a lot of juncos. I recognized some maple, beech, and red oak trees. Most of the leaves on these trees had fallen, and any greenery was mainly from buckthorn plants, which were all over.

This spot had much more groundcover and low growing plants in comparison to Trinity Woods, which is mostly forest. Both spots are near moving water, have lots of organic matter on the ground, and go through similar seasons.

At Trinity Woods this morning, the most apparent change since the last visit in October was the amount of fallen trees, likely having fallen because of colder temperatures and recent winds. There were trees on the trail, and tons on the slopes going down to the small creek. Trees looked more empty and it was easier to see through the overstory, and there were a lot more leaves scattered on the ground. Also, the creek had grown slightly bigger, the flow was more noticeable, and the water was deeper and seemed to have a slightly different path.

Brief, Birds-eye Map