For 15 minutes on Saturday, October 26th, I sat directly in what I considered to be my site. I think that the boundaries of what “my site” is can’t exactly be pinpointed because I am choosing more to observe how the whole world interacts, but just looking closely at the physical space around me. With that being said, below is a hand drawn map of my site in south Red Rocks Park.
Bird’s Eye View of Area
Forgive me for not including a key on the picture and for the terrible quality. In the map, the X inside of the circle towards the middle of the canvas is the center and where I sat for fifteen minutes to observe the world around me. The way that this is drawn has the chain-link fence below me and the beach above me, however in real life, the water is south of my position, and the fence would be north. All the circles surrounding me represent the trees in the area, with the massive comma shaped tree being the main attraction. Just next to the big tree is a basin, I did the best I could to convey this with lines showing that the elevation changes and at the very bottom is a pool of water coming from a drainage pipe.
Fall Foliage
Above I have included some pictures of the trees in the area after the peak of this season’s change in over-story. I took note of the changes I saw; Most birches were devoid of leaves almost completely, white oaks were generally still green, red oak leaves were yellow-orange, and the beeches were yellow. Most of the leaves that fell were still on the ground nearby to where they fell. I dug through a small area of leaves to observe the soil itself, and I saw no new budding plants at all. As a matter of fact, the whole understory was lackluster and devoid of life compared to just a month ago.
Below is some pictures of the ground and understory. The barberry bush at the bottom of the tree was smaller and less green than last time I observed the area. As mentioned, the soil and ground is what would be expected from the woods in the fall. The soil was as cold as the 51 degree day, and the leaves crunched for the first time when I stepped on them. Of course, after I was done with moving things around, I put them back, but I also wanted to take note of the insects there…
Animals and Wildlife
As I sat there, I heard two distinct bird calls, the American Goldfinch and the American Robin. This made sense, as they are both native to the area and they are both likely getting ready for wintering. I also saw two squirrels, though neither of them were interacting with the other. Likely, they were both frantically getting ready for the upcoming winter months, burrowing nuts and making their area nice and cozy for the cold. The only animal I could get a picture of was a duck, a whole family of them were taking a swim in the lake. I also got a picture of an ant, but I don’t think that’s too interesting as ants are all over the place.
More over on the insect side of things, as mentioned I dug up a spot in hopes that I would find something interesting, unfortunately there were no bugs. I was hoping to at least find a beetle but when I looked closely, I saw nothing. I imagine this is because they’re all going away for the winter, but it was still a let down.
