Field Study #3!:

Field notes: 

Date + Time: 10/14, 6:45

Climate: sunny, no rain or snow, clear sky, light breeze

Temp. 77 degrees

Sunrise: 7:58

Sunset: 7:03

Organisms: I saw lots of bees, a praying mantis, and tons of bugs

If you look closely you can see swarms of bugs in this picture. I wonder what makes all the little gnats swarm up like this in one spot instead of spreading out? In the second picture you can see a group of birds flying through the air. I also saw lots of little insects laying motionless on the sidewalk. At first I thought they were dead, but I found out that they actually can remain still for long periods of time to camouflage. One organism I definitely smelled; COWS. There is a huge barn near the park and the smell of manuaree wafted strongly in to the park.

Looking Up:

For the first time in my field study, I thought to look up. I was really suprised by how many birds and nests I saw. If you were to pause in any given place and look around for a few moments, you would be almost certain to see a nest up above (see pics below for example). I also saw lots of brids flying in packs through the sky and lots of traveling geese(see video below). I saw some blue jays and also heard tons of birds. 

Changes at the Park:

While I was walking around the natural area to get to my field study spot, I noticed a few interesting changes:

They are building new fences around the the wetlands underneath this path

Second, i'm this has been here before i've just never noticed it but in the picture you see a strip of black that's almost like a tarp material. I wonder if this has something to do with runoff, or why they have this there?

Third: They planted oak trees all around the park. Like at least 50 oak trees. The small trees had little white protecters around them which might indicate that there are deers or other wildlife in the area. I wonder if they put these in for astetics or if there is some practical reason for all these trees?

Fourth: Fall colors!!! Some of the trees were starting to change colors for the fall. Although some of them were turning beautiful shades of red, orange and yellow; I was surprised how few of the trees at my actual field study location had changed colors. I wonder what factors would cause some leaves to change colors faster than others, other than different tree types. 

Picture from same spot:

Pics from around my location: