brandonshumate's Journal

For this last nature walk, I decided to go back to where I first started, and went to the reservoir. Perhaps the most striking thing that I noticed was just how much colder it was compared to my first time walking around it; the temperature was hovering around the mid-40s with the wind taken into account, which I would guess was blowing at around 10 mph. Despite the wind and the cold, there was a good amount of activity going on, both in terms of people walking their dogs or exercising and animals that were out and about. In the reservoir itself, there was a wide variety of vertebrates that I noticed early on. There was the usual Canadian geese and mallards along with American coots and ruddy ducks, which I hadn't seen before. Walking around the reservoir further, it caught my attention that there was a good amount of squirrels staying in the foliage, and I managed to catch a picture of one before it ran off further into the trees.

For this nature walk, I decided to once again try somewhere new, so I went to the Houghton Garden in Newton. The garden, despite its name, is wild, and is not landscaped. As the theme for this walk is plants, I spent the majority of my time there looking for different types of them, capturing a picture of one every now and then. I even managed to find a good amount of lichens and mosses around the area. The Garden itself was really nice, with the foliage and trails surrounding a central pond. However, the sound of the nearby T going by every now and then surely interrupted the peaceful atmosphere, but I wouldn't say that it completely ruined the experience. Funnily enough, for the first time this semester that I wasn't looking for a vertebrate, they were everywhere. Every time I turned a corner on a trail there was a chipmunk or squirrel standing in the middle of the path. The weather was perfect, with sunny skies and the temperature hovering in the mid to low 60s.

For this second nature walk, I decided to get further away from campus and walk around the Webster Conservation Area. It was nice to walk around a place where it seemed like I was the only person there (apart from the sounds of the T going by and the cars on nearby Hammond Pond Parkway). With Fall starting, there were plenty of leaves on the ground and some in the trees were beginning to change. For the majority of my walk there, I didn't see much, so I just took some pictures of what I believe to be American Witch-Hazel, Common Bracken, and Eastern White Pine. I also took a picture of fly that had seemingly been buzzing around me since I got there. I heard birds chirping for the duration of time that I was there, and was desperate to snag a picture of one. This proved frustrating, as I could hear them high up in the canopy but could not see themselves myself. Luckily, I spotted a squirrel in the corner of my eye, and quickly took a picture of it, fulfilling my wish to have a vertebrate in this entry. The weather was overcast, windy, but pretty humid, with the temperature probably hovering around the low- to mid-70s.

For this first nature walk I decided to stay close to the university, so I took a nice stroll around the reservoir. The first thing I noticed when I got there was how popular it was, so I immediately grew concerned that there wouldn't be many animals out. Luckily, there were several geese, swans, and ducks that were just swimming around in the water, so I was able to get a few pictures of each of those. After walking further around the reservoir for about another half hour, I realized that I probably wasn't going to get a picture of a squirrel or a chipmunk like I wanted, so I decided to snap a picture of what I believe is a fireweed instead. After that, I found a little trail that leads into the wooded area north of the reservoir. I figured that since there were lots of trees, I could easily find the little vertebrates that I was looking for. I had no luck, but I noticed that there was a rather large ant crawling on a piece of bark down by my feet. I got a shot of it, and headed back to the school. the weather was overcast and windy, and it was a little cold, around the mid 60s (I'm from San Diego, so please go easy on me with what I consider to be "cold". I know that I'll be in for quite the shock in just a few months).