kevinlatu's Journal

With the months growing ever colder, the last nature walk challenge of vertebrates became harder. Andy and I were walking towards Newton to go in the woods to search for animals when wild turkeys appeared. We took photos and hopped on the bus. We saw many different grey squirrels, but no muskrats, field mice, or other small rodents were around. We heard some birds chirping, but could never actually find them. The cold wind and dry air was tough to handle. Since I wanted to include vertebrates I saw while on nature walks, I also added the raccoon and rabbit photos I had from earlier. There were not many vertebrates out during the walk, but that could have been due to the cold weather forcing birds to migrate and mammals to change sleeping patterns. Overall, the nature walk was enjoyable and I will miss them next semester.

I took a nature walk in my town on Sunday October 13th. In Moorestown, there is this place called Strawbridge Lake, where there is a decent amount of plant life along the banks. My friends from home also had an assignment to do for their science class at the river, so we went together. The weather was surprisingly warm at least compared to Massachusetts. There was some instances of animal life there too including turtles, ladybugs, and milkweed bugs. While there was some trees planted dozens of yards away from the bank, I made sure to only take photos of the plants that were wild. We saw some old people sitting outside, but overall there were no one at the lake. The lake's natural plants are only found very close to the water since it is entirely surrounded engulfed by bridges and roads. On one side there is town houses and on the other is a highway. The natural animal life there is scarce, but still able to be felt.

I took a walk through the trails of Edmands Park behind the dorms of BC's Newton Campus. The weather was cool enough to wear a sweatshirt, but warm enough to wear a t-shirt. I saw lots of squirrels and chipmunks, but every time I tried to get a clear photo, they would jolt away. In one clear section of the forests, there was a wall of sound coming from the grasshoppers, which stopped instantly once this woman and her two dogs approached. It was incredibly ominous and down-right spooky since the sun was setting soon. I also casually mentioned that I was going to go on this nature walk to three kids on my floor and they all wanted to go, even though none of them take any science classes. This worked out well because of all the other people on the trails were incredibly sketchy. There was tons of flowers, trees, fungi, and mosses, but surprisingly I never noticed any birds. It was a great location to go to because of its proximity to my dorm.