llarkin's Journal

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 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.