Field Study #3

 Time: 4:13pm - 4:32pm


Climate Conditions: Warm & Sunny

Temperature: 69°F

Length of Day: 11hrs 18min

Animals:



This was the first week that I have really noticed spiderwebs, and there were many of them all over the place, though I didn't see any actual spiders. There were many clumps of webs [one of which was the second picture from above] and after doing some research, I believe that they are made from spider mites, which are super small arachnids that live in warm weather. Also, with additional research, I found that spider mites appear as small white dots, and could potentially be the cause of the white, powdery residue that I found on my last visit.
https://ipm.ucanr.edu/home-and-landscape/spider-mites/#gsc.tab=0



I found this on my way out, but I believe that it is a groundhog hole. Though, it could also be a rabbit because we have lots of both throughout the area.



It was hard to get a good picture of this, but a lot of the area appeared to be matted down, like something had recently walked there. I'm not exactly sure what it is, but deer are a likely cause.

Plants/vegetation:



I've talked about these during my other two visits as well, but I noticed that this week, the berries have turned a darker shade of red, I wonder if it has something to do with the changing seasons?




Many things were losing leaves or turning brown, which is to be expected since its autumn, but I hadn't expected things to change so quickly. If you look at the pictures of this tree from my last field study, it was a lot denser and greener than it is now.
In general, lots of the vegetation was droopy and had less vibrant colors. I especially noticed this in the vegetation near the creek, because they dipped so low that it was a lot harder to even find where the edge of the water was.



This is the same plant that I noticed during my last field study [bittersweet nightshade?]. It is a lot smaller and shorter, and has definitely lost leaves since last time, which seemed odd.


Other Things to Note:

The water in the creek was a lot deeper than previous weeks [around 2 1/2 ft], and it was a lot darker. Also, there was a lot more algae compared to earlier in the year, where I had seen almost none. I wonder if this has something to do with seasons changing?

Comments

  1. hc biologyOctober 16, 2026 at 9:13 AM

    Fantastic! You are doing such excellent work on this! Keep an eye on that algae. Bonus if you explain fall turnover. Include your sources. Watch for patterns in the color change and leaf fall especially now through your next 2 visits!

    ReplyDelete

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Time: 03:28 pm Climate Conditions: Wet & Cloudy Temperature: 77°F Length of Day: 12hrs 50min Organisms: I didn't see any animals other than a few insects (some bees and mosquitos), but I did see plenty of interesting plants.  I saw two different types of berries, one that grew on trees and the other on a small bush. I also ran into a few different types of colorful flowers and weeds spread throughout the area. Some, like the white flowers, were very small scattered, and had small stems so they were harder to find, while the yellow weeds grew in large clusters that were tall and were much easier to find. The creek had very murky and dirty water, and wasn't flowing very fast even though it had rained most of yesterday and today. It was only a few inches deep and had a lot of sticks and dead grass in it. I didn't get a good picture of it, but I plan to next time.
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