llarkin's Journal

For this nature walk, I took a trip back to Houghton Garden since I enjoyed my time there last walk for the fungi themed week. This week was themed Plants, so I knew the Houghton Garden would be an excellent location to spot some to observe. I went during the early afternoon/late morning where there were remnants of the rain that carried on throughout the night. It was a cool and refreshing walk and the small pond and short streams were full of water and small fish (I saw one fish that was relatively big but I could not snap a good photo of it). It was pretty easy to find some plants since I was surrounded by them, but it was surprisingly difficult to find some that I felt were interesting to dedicate to an observation. A lot of the plants I saw that stood out to me, I had already made observations for, so I kept and eye on not repeating any from my past nature walks. It was cool to see how full of life the garden is, which is a relatively small area. Noticing the changing of the trees colors while on my walk was also very neat to see. I love the transition of a majority of trees and plants as we get further into the fall. It is always a very interesting process and its can be a bummer to see all the leaves fall, but it's beautiful nonetheless. All the plants I took observations of on this walk are still standing strong, and plants such as the Eastern Hemlock will continue to stand strong through the winter. Thats why I always loved fernlike plants and pine trees because they don't go away for the winter. Sadly, most of the plants I observed such as the Catawba Rhododendron, Early Meadow-Rue, and the Wind Euonymus will not make it throughout the winter, but they will leave many seeds to lay dormant, so when the spring comes, they can repopulate. I highly recommend taking a walk by the Houghton Garden, and I really enjoyed my nature walks there.

For my second nature walk, I took a trip to the Houghton Garden which I found to be a great area. It is a secluded and protected area that was larger than I expected and home to beautiful and diverse nature. I was able to explore nearly all of the area, but I hope to go there again to focus on the little pond/body of water in the garden. I could see movement (water bugs, frogs, etc) and I would like to see if I can get a good picture of some of them. The weather was nice as well. I went during the early afternoon, so the sun was out, but the cool morning weather lingered. The Houghton Garden was a pleasant surprise to me, and I will definitely be going there again, and highly recommend it since it is so close and has a lot of wildlife to observe. The theme of the week for this nature walk was fungi, so most of my observations are a part of the fungi kingdom. There were a lot of mushrooms in the area which I was able to observe, as well as two separate species of lichen; considered to be a "symbolic partnership" between fungus and algae (https://www.fs.usda.gov/wildflowers/beauty/lichens/about.shtml). Although the majority of my observations of fungi, I was able to capture some other species such as the tree squirrel, a plant with fruit on it (according to iNaturalist it was Genus Malus), white ball-like fungi (Aborted entoloma), and something I and iNaturalist could not classify (looked like it could have been eggs of some sort or larvae). It was very cool to see such a diversity of fungi and plant life in Houghton Garden, and it was a very peaceful experience to explore the area.

For my observation this week, I went to Hammond Pond Reservation, and went to several different conservation areas along the roadside. The weather was really nice: clear skies, slight breeze, cool, and cloudy. I was hoping to see some animals, but I was unlucky. I found a nice small stream when I was returning from my walk which I will definitely have to check out next Naturalist walk. For my observations, I found a lot of plants that caught my eye while on my walk in the woods. There is a lot of diversity in flowers and plants throughout this conservation area, so there are a lot of organisms to take a picture of. Since this week's theme is on the Tree of Life, my observations mainly address life in the plant kingdom. I was able to snap a picture of a chipmunk (Genus Tamias) which increased my diversity of organisms. All the species observed are included in the Eukarya section of the tree of life. Although the observations were of the plants themselves, you can make the connection that there are thousands and thousands of microscopic organisms and bacteria on the plants and species identified. Since microbes are the main focus of next week, I can assume that there will be some discussion on the importance of bacteria on various living organisms, and helping them carry out functions and more.