Field Study Visit #4

Date: October 18, 2026

Time: 4:20pm-4:35pm

Weather: Clear skies with sun, and a gentle breeze. 

Temperature: 58º

Length of day: 10 hours and 1 minute

My same spot picture:

Organisms observed: Today I saw a chipmunk once again, but what was really cool was that I could hear the chipmunk chirping. I didn't know what kinda sound a chipmunk made till then. I also heard lots of birds chirping, and I saw little insects that were flying around which almost looked like pieces of cotton. 

I went with my sister this time, and she caught an amazing picture of a squirrel jumping from a tree branch!

Changes I noticed since last time: I revisited the mushroom I have been observing and it has continued to look similar. It remains the same brown color, but there is a chance it is a little smaller. It was hard to tell without having measured the mushroom each time, but just by looks it did seem to have shrunk just a tad. I also noticed that all of the yellow from the flowers I had drawn earlier was gone, and some of the plant were no longer there. They definitely have died with this colder weather. Finally I noticed that more trees were beginning to change color. The majority of the color I saw was yellow, so that made the location even more beautiful. 

 

Any experiences: Today I noticed that the water in the river seemed to be flowing slowly. I don't believe this is any different than past visits, but I thought that was interesting. I also noticed a lot of people walking the trails, and the amount of car motor noises. I bet those noises have a big impact on the amount of wildlife I get to see. 

Answer to questions: Last visit I asked the question of why only the trees near the outside of the park had seemed to change their leaf color first. Since then I have done some research and I discovered that the pattern I noticed is normal. When a leaf changes its color earlier this is usually due to stress. When a leaf is changing color, the green chlorophyll pigments are taken away to reveal the once masked red, orange or yellow color. Thing that speed up this process can be temperature, disease from insects and the amount of sunlight. Trees that are on the outside of the park will experience colder temperatures, and more drastic changes throughout the day, versus trees that are in the middle of the forest can regulate their temperature better. 

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