A UVM blog NR 9 Blog: Peter Wyrick

Wonder Blog Assignment #2

By pwyrick

Part 1:

Wednesday, 6/27/23, 5:00 PM

Falling Springs Run Park, Oakmont, PA, 15139

Weather: The weather is not great today, not a day I want to be outside. the Air quality Index is at 172, making it extremely smokey everywhere outside. Probably not safe for me to be out here.

Part 2:

When I got to the site today, right away my focus was on this large log that has fallen over many years ago. I went to turn it over, to see what plants and insects might be living underneath. What I found was extremely interesting, an entire micro ecosystem. There were two different species of fungi that I could see, although I am not sure what either of them were. One was an orange color and seemed to have vein-like roots that ran all over the underside of the log. The other was a more traditional umbrella mushroom, with an off-white color. There was also a myriad of insects under this log. This included pill bugs, worms, and two different sizes of ant.

Part 3:

While in the woods, I was most interested to find a common species, the Honey Bee (Anthophila). I was interested to find this species because I had not before known bees to inhabit this area of the woods. I only saw the bee when went up close to examine a flower, and then saw it pollinating. It was an easy process to identify it, as it was obviously a honey bee, and not a bumble bee or wasp. A fascinating fact I learned about honey bees is that each one will only produce up to a 1/12 teaspoon of honey in their life. This shows how it really is up to the entire hive in order to make a substantial amount of honey.

Honey Bee pollinating a small purple flower

Part 4: Sketches

Tree with second tree growing out of the side, I sketched this because the natural growth greatly interested me.
Stump with lichen growing on the side of it, I chose to sketch this because I was unsure why this one tree was chopped down in an otherwise untouched forest.
Cluster of leaves, I sketched this because the shape of the leaf reminded me of a flame.
A fallen log, I chose to sketch this because this was the log beneath which I found a micro ecosystem.

Part 5: Conclusion

It was interesting adding sketching to my time spent in nature. I will say that it probably was not the best day for it. It was humid the whole time, and many gnats were surrounding me. Also, I wanted to spend as little time outdoors as possible due to how bad the air quality was. However, it did feel calming to be sketching in the woods. it was not too challenging, I just had to stay in the same place while sketching an object as to not lose the view of it I was drawing. I would not say it affected my attention, if anything it made me pay more attention to the specific things I was looking at. Next time I go, I would like to follow up with the ecosystem I found under the log, and see how everything is doing down there.

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