Syndicate Road Woods – October 9, 2009 – 9:00 A.M.

As soon as I step out of Mission it begins to rain.  The sky is overcast, the air is damp, and the temperature is about 50 degrees Fahrenheit, so I realize why it was not Mountain Day today.  Walking to the site, I already notice some changes from the previous week.  The leaves are now a much deeper yellow than before, and many of them form a colorful, crunchy blanket over the sidewalk.  I also notice that the New York aster on the east side of Syndicate Road that caught my attention last week with its brilliant light-blue coloring now appears duller and its blooms have shriveled.  I hear the rain pounding faster against the leaves, but under the canopy of trees I am now safe and dry.  I identify the leaves that have fallen to the ground as maple, beech and elm, and begin to search for their mother trees.  At first I was surprised not to see any oak trees or leaves, but then I notice a tall oak at the northeast corner of the wood which still retains many of its leaves.  I also observe more coniferous trees in the wood, whose green needles are now more apparent against the autumn colored backdrop.  Many of the shrubs that are very populous in the Syndicate Road Woods are still green.  This makes me wonder if they are exotic plants, which would account for their quantity and their green leaves.  Many of the small trees, which I believe to be elms, also retain their green color.

Heading closer to the stream, I can hear the results of the recent rain as the water flows noisily out from under Syndicate Road through the culvert.  I see that some orange foam has again gathered near the culvert, and I wonder its cause.  What then immediately catches my attention is a small tree with bright pink leaves.  The leaves are growing in an opposite growth pattern but droop towards the ground in a floppy manner.  This tree may be a sumac.  Near to the stream, I see something I hadn’t noticed before.  Halfway up the trunk of a tall trembling aspen is a growth of large green leaves that look a bit like maples.  They seem to be connected to vines growing from the ground which then twist around the trunk of the aspen as well.  I wonder if this plant is killing the tree, or if the two are living in harmony. 

Although I do not see any animals besides an ant scurrying down a log, I do notice the absence of the mosquitoes that pestered me during the beginning of September.  I do, however, spot holes at the bases of many trees that appear to be chipmunk homes.  Birds chirp all around me, but I can only pick out a few specific calls.  First, a bird makes a shrill chirp in an even rhythm about once every three seconds.  Another joins in with a deeper, more frequent chirp about two times per second.  And of course, I hear the caws of many crows hidden among the tree branches.

This time I decide to explore a new exit from the woods, and I head east towards the Poker Flats field.  I come across a small trench emerging southeast from the stream which contains no water.  The trench also comes to a stop about twenty feet from the stream.  I wonder if this trench was formed by humans or as a result of natural causes.  Exploring further, I find that the eastern side of the wood is much different than the western side.  There are fewer shrubs and small trees on the east side, which makes the atmosphere much more open.  The small trees that are present have been stripped of their leaves, which could be a result of seasonal changes but is probably due to the presence of deer who like to eat the leaves close to the ground.  This side of the wood also has a higher ratio of conifers to deciduous plants, and their dead needles and pine cones cover the ground.  I find a new type of tree with large heart-shaped leaves which I cannot seem to identify.  I then come across a circular indent of land that is a bit deeper than the surrounding terrain.  It runs about 15 feet North/South and 10 feet East/West.  Although it is dry, I believe that it was once filled with water, and I wish to explore its purpose further.  Perhaps it is even a vernal pool.

Field Bolg Journal 3

Jon Levinsohn

It was October 9^th, 2009, a little after 10:00 am. It was about 12^O C, the sky was overcast and it began drizzling after about 15 minutes. The cemetery was being mowed on a sit-down-lawn-mower for the whole duration of my stay, a train whistle blared for a few minutes, the rushing of the Green River was louder than normal, and traffic on route 2 and route 43 could be heard, all of this made it difficult to focus on the bird songs.

The first noteworthy sighting was slightly outside my site, on the bridge connecting the cemetery to route 43. A group of third-graders were gathered at the far end of the bridge staring at the center of the bridge. Along the guardrail, about 6 meters away from me, and halfway between the sides of the bride perched what I believe to be a red-tail hawk. It looked more brownish than red-tail hawks I have seen before, and it was very large up close; from head to the end of its tail was probably a little shy of half a meter. The hawk seemed perturbed by the third graders and me. It spastically turned its head trying to scope out both ends of the bridge as quickly as possible. After several minutes, the hawk finally glided down to some rocks along the Green River, where it watched us from a distance in a far less agitated state.

I moved along to my site, and I had never seen so many birds at my sight before. I first saw two blue jays perched on a small maple tree. Silently, one inched toward the other. Suddenly, both took off, one trailing the other by a third of a meter flying with seeming reckless abandon as they weaved through trees and shrubs. Such games of chase quickly became a theme. I immediately started to notice many, many bird songs, most of which I cannot identify or even give an adequate description a sound that resembled rattling, which seemed to be orchestrated as a call and response between two birds. I did hear the call of the catbird, and subsequently saw many of these birds, but I could not observe any of them for very long as they were constantly moving from tree to tree and the foliage has not yet fallen. I saw a small woodpecker (perhaps 10 cm long from head to tail), though I could not get a good enough view to further determine the species. It perched in only dead branches, and would work its way around the branch in a circular method such that it made sure that it had pecked at every point along the circumference of the branch. I was astounded to the speed at which it pecked the branch; its head became a whir. A brownish colored red-tail hawk (which I believe to be the same one that was earlier perched on the bridge) then passed over the woods, gliding slowly, but the bird songs went uninterrupted. I heard melodic whistling, which proved enjoyable to hear, but unhelpful in identifying the birds. I heard and the “chick-a-dee-dee-dee” of the black capped chickadee, and saw several on my walk out of the cemetery. I then spent a few minutes confusing the fruit of the sumac tree with a cardinal, and decided to turn my attention to the ground, upon realizing my ineptitude and sore neck.

I immediately noticed mayfly hovering lazily among the leaves of a sumac, which seemed like an easy meal for a hungry bird. A squirrel darted out of the woods briefly, near the location where I have seen a small animal hole. It appeared to be reddish and small, but most striking about the small animal was the lack of fur on its tail. Losing such fur as it starts to get cold seems to be a poor survival strategy, though who am I to argue with millions of years of evolution.

As I started to leave, I noticed that the Norway maple seem to still be very far behind the other trees in terms of their leaves turning colors; they were still very green (with tar spots).

Gordon Smith

Natural History of the Berkshires

10/06/09

Field Blog #3: Mission Park

On Tuesday when I went to my field site between 4:30 and 5 pm, the weather was partly cloudy, and a slight breeze was blowing through. While I was there, I paid attention to two main aspects: the recent changes that were occurring in my site, and the faunal activity that was going on in the area.

A stroll around my site did not reveal too many drastic changes to the area’s flora. Some changes that I did notice were that one sugar maple on the east edge of the site was much more fully yellow now: I would estimate about three fourths of the leaves were no longer green. Additionally, the sensitive ferns seem much lighter in color than they were a week or two ago, and several patches of goldenrod flowers have mysteriously appeared on the western edge. I say mysterious because I had not before seen any plants even resembling the ones that are now growing happily. Most likely I simply missed them before they started flowering.

In my search for animal life, I first simply sat down by a tree quietly and watched. In a few minutes I had observed several mosquitoes and other flying insects in rays of light, taken note of some deer droppings close by, and seen a number of playful squirrels. These furry critters participated in a large number of different tasks as I continued to observe them. First they were just walking along the ground, traveling from tree to tree most likely for various purposes. At several intervals, I watched them dig in different spots looking for their stores, but none of the digging that I could see yielded any result. They soon tired of this, however, and began playing what seemed to be a game of one chasing the other, then the other turning around and chasing the first. This went on for several minutes before they disappeared into a tree.

At this point, curious that I had seen so few ground insects as I sat and with no large rocks to turn over, I picked up a stick and dug myself a small hole, hoping to see some interesting grubs. The first layer of the ground was about an inch of leaf litter and pine needles that was reasonably damp and stayed clumped together reasonably solidly. Under this layer was the dirt itself, which was dry and rocky. The rocks were small, about the size of gravel, and were of all sorts of different materials. There was also some broken brown bottle glass mixed in, which was interesting to see an inch below the surface, but not altogether too surprising given the college surroundings.

Overall, I dug down about 10 centimeters into the dirt itself, but still found no evidence of ground dwelling grubs or other insects; only roots, rocks, and dry dark brown dirt. At this point I gave up with my little hole, but luckily as I was filling it in, an interesting creature landed on my field journal. It was a sort of tiny, yellowish, translucent worm-like caterpillar type insect. It was about 4-5 millimeters long, and maybe 1 mm wide, and I think it had 10 pairs of feet (I forgot my hand lens, unfortunately). Interested, I played with this grub for a while. His basic reflex if something poked him was to let go of the leaf or whatever surface he was on, and to fall while holding onto the leaf with a strand of silk. This silk, interestingly, seemed to come from his mouth rather than from his tail, (as I would have guessed) assuming that it walks with its head forward. After it lands on some surface, it almost looks as if the caterpillar were eating the silk it used as a falling mechanism: its head moves in a way that makes me think as if it were pulling the string down into its mouth. If this letting go tactic fails to cause the caterpillar to fall, it simply curls up quickly, then immediately fully extends again and moves quickly away.

Eventually, I allowed the likely traumatized bug go on its way, and continued my general observation hoping for another such interesting encounter. Unfortunately, all I saw were a few tiny black ants.

Throughout this time, I had also been listening to the birds, but only two voices called during my entire visit.

                I left for Tyler House Woods on September 24^th at 4:15 P.M. It was again another sunny, warm day with little to no rain throughout the previous week. The woods are approximately five minutes from Mission and off Tyler Road. I began my map at Tyler Road, which curves up a slight incline to Tyler House. While walking, I could hear the Ultimate Frisbee team practicing in the distance, and a few people road bikes or cars up to Tyler House.

                I stopped for a moment to begin drawing Tyler Road, the first part of my map. As I looked around, I saw that there were four deer grazing in the field on my left. They were gathered on the opposite side of the road near a small house. I set my things down on the sidewalk and went to take a closer look.

                Of the four deer, there was one adult and three fawns. The fawns stayed clustered together as the doe trekked ahead. They heard me as I noisily plodded through the grass and dead leaves, but they didn’t seem alarmed. The deer remained calm and at peace until two black Labradors came bounding out of the house. They chased the deer across the field, and the deer fled across the road. It was then that I noticed from their white tails that they were white tailed deer. The deer made it safely to the field next to Tyler House, and the dogs stopped their chase.

                I continued on my way to the Tyler parking lot. There were a few cars there and some people going to and from Tyler House. While standing in the parking lot, I noticed a path that I had not seen before. I decided to take it to see where it led to. I have decided to name this path Huckleberry Path, as it is surrounded by huckleberry bushes. I also found more trash on this path which included bottles, cans, and a Butterfinger wrapper. The path led to another parking lot next to a red bricked house, which had a small black and white cat staring out of the window.

                I then returned to the Huckleberry Path and walked on a side path which connects the Huckleberry Path with the main path, which I’ll call Tyler Path. This side path passes by the Barred Owl Tree where I saw the barred owl. The owl was not there that day, but I did notice something new about the tree. There were lots of holes in the tree which suggests that a woodpecker lives nearby. I wonder what type of woodpecker made these holes? The Barred Owl Tree stands on top of an embankment which is covered by fallen trees, decaying logs, and one paper birch.

                Further down the path is the Periwinkle Valley, where there is a large amount of periwinkle. There is no longer any sign of the purple flower of the periwinkle since the blooming season is over. The Periwinkle Valley then runs into Tyler Path, which is next to a small street lamp. The rest of Tyler Woods is dominated by a tree which looks to be sugar maple and some sort of oak. The trees here still haven’t changed much in color, so it’s still somewhat difficult to tell the species of the trees. Besides trees, there are very few plants to the right of Tyler Path. The ground is mostly covered by dead leaves and small twigs, although there were a few ferns which may have been the New York fern.

                At the very back of Tyler Woods is a fence, which separates the woods from the houses beyond. There are also two more paths near this fence. One path leads to the houses, and the other path, which is less distinct, leads to a clearing behind Tyler House. It was here that I saw one of the white tailed deer again. I also noticed other mammals within the woods including two grey squirrels and one eastern chipmunk.

                Some species of plants and animals are still unknown to me, so I hope to continue to add to my map as I identify them. I have also come to a greater understanding of how drawing can increase one’s understanding of a subject. Whether it is a living organism or an inanimate object, drawing forces the observer to look at a subject in a new way.

            Tyler House Woods, although still wild and natural, is affected by the people and dwellings which surround it. I believe the influence man has played on these woods has affected the plants and animals which live within its boundaries, for while walking through Tyler House Woods, I saw multiple signs of man and their influence on the plant life there.

            I started out to Tyler House Woods on September 12^th, 2009 at around three o’clock in the afternoon. The weather, at the time, was cloudy. There had been a slight drizzle earlier in the day, but the rain had stopped for now. Walking toward Tyler House Woods, I came upon Tyler House and a parking lot occupied by multiple cars. The parking lot is only a few feet from the site, making it easy for human activity to affect the plants and animals of the woods.

            Upon entering the site, I noticed that there were lots of dead foliage on the forest floor, mostly dead leaves, sticks and twigs, and rotting logs. Along the curb, where the cement met the woods, a line of ants trailed across the ground. Other insects present included an American Bumble Bee and mosquitoes.

            Bordering the woods, were Spice Bushes and White Snakeroot. I spotted the American Bubble Bee flying around the blossoms of the White Snakeroot. Deeper into the woods, I noticed that the trees were, for the most part, deciduous such as the Silver Maple and the Red Maple. The leaves were mostly green, and there were very few signs of color change. I spotted one cone which looked like it could belong to one of the variety of Spruce trees.

            Besides the large trees that were growing there, there were also many young trees growing beneath the shade of the older ones. These trees may have been planted by people, or they may have grown naturally. Either way, it shows that the Tyler House Woods is thriving. These saplings may also be replacing those trees which were cut down. Remnants of these trees, such as the remaining stumps and dead logs, can be seen on the forest floor.

            Besides trees, there were also different types of foliage that covered the ground. This foliage included Bracken, Periwinkle, and Calico Aster. A large patch of Periwinkle was present at the back of the site, but only a few blooms could be seen.

            Next to the Periwinkle, there was a manmade path, which led to a house beyond the woods. To the right of the path, there was also a fence and a shed. I also found some remnants of a glass bottle and a little paper and trash. With the woods surrounded by homes and because it is accessible by a path, one can see how easily the woods can be influenced by human existence.

            Between the path and the small shed were a cluster of trees. One of these trees was dead and had smooth, white bark. Upon this tree, perched, what looked to be, a Barred Owl. It sat calm and still as a number of other birds sang nearby, which included a flock of geese, which momentarily flew above the woods. In addition to birds, I also saw one grey squirrel wandering around a little outside the bounds of my site.

            Tyler House Woods is a site rich with a variety of plants and animals, many of which I probably missed on my first outing, and from the looks of the small saplings growing within the woods and the presence of people within close proximity to the site, I believe Tyler House Woods is still a growing and changing site effected both by nature and people.

Field Blog Journal 2

Jon Levinsohn

It was October 2^nd, 2009 at 9:15 am. It was cold–less than 10^O C, and partly cloudy. There was a slight breeze. It had rained several times in the past week, ending the dry spell that lasted for the first half of September. Sadly, I had come down with a nasty cold and could not smell a thing; my nose was stuffed up. Instead, I focused my entire effort upon looking for what had changed in the past week changes at my site.

The first striking change was the change in color of the trees in the graveyard. There were several shades of yellow and orange on the Norway maple’s and sugar maple’s leaves. What made the change in color interesting was that the Norway maple and sugar maple that were in the adjoining woods (albeit barely) had not changed color in the slightest. The black tar fungus still remained on the Norway maple leaves, but they were as green as they had been last week and the week before. I find it curious that the small difference in location (less than 100 meters) can effect the changing of leaves so profoundly; both the maples in the woods and those in the graveyard must get similar amounts of water and be subjected to the same temperature and day length. I would have predicted if there was any difference that the trees in the woods would change first, as they would get less sunlight due to competing with other plants. Sumac, which still had its bright maroon fruit, had changed, leaving a reddish hue on the leaves. The sensitive fern also looked more yellowed and browned than previous.

The green river seemed to be running higher than previously, due likely to the recent rain. Its green color is from specks of phyllite. I also recognized the marble rocks poking out of the ground at the mini-cliffs as marble, and likely Walloomsac marble.

I noticed freshly cut bundled white snakeroot laid on top of the older dead yard trimmings of oak braches and grass.  Those cut plants, along with the white snake root that was living at the edges of the woods had lost many of there flowers and had a white dandelion-like seeds in their place that had not yet blown away. The golden rod had also begun to lose some of its flowers, which turn brownish-yellow as they die.

I then went about identifying several of the plants that I had not been able to identify previously. I had mistaken a black walnut (which I was helped to identify by my fellow Burns Park Elementary graduate Prof. Edwards) for an ash due mainly to not having seen an ash in-person before the Stone Hill trip. The black walnut had nuts lying (a few were still on the tree) on the ground encased in a covering that caused them to look like a small lime in shape and in color. I saw some multiflora rose with its red berries. The pokeweed had lost most of its berries. Since I saw none on the ground, I assume that they were eaten. Small wild garlic mustard was at the very border of the graveyard and the woods, and it made me regret my anosmic situation. The bright orange bulbs previously described in my first field blog journal were the fruit of jack-in-the-pulpit. Finally, I also found some winged euyonamus, which unlike the winged euyonamus we observed on stone hill, had small red berries.

I also noticed some lichen, but no moss, on a large Norway maple. It faced the south, which also was the direction that the tree seemed to lean. I am curious as to why there is little moss in the area. The only time I have observed lichen and no moss was in exposed areas like the top of Monument Mountain. The woods bordering the cemetery are not exposed and would seem like they would be able to sustain moss.

I did see a small red squirrel, and hear a bird, I would hazard a guess that it was a cat bird, though I am far from sure of my identification.

Field Journal Blog #0

East Lawn Cemetery Woods

Jon Levinsohn

It was humid and the temperature was hovering just under 10 Celsius, but it was sunny with a few clouds littering the sky; the dew on the plants was easily visible. It was around 8 in the morning. I could hear the Green River– the rushing of water over rocks– and birds. The birds were loud, and their calls came without any break. I could not identify the calling species and I quickly stopped noticing them. I thought I might hear cars from nearby route two, but I cannot be sure. About 40 minutes later, the birds stopped, and I could hear a roar of what I think was an airplane.

The land itself is composed of a steep section that borders the cemetery, which levels out as it approaches the river. The dirt was packed fairly tight, but rocks and small lose clusters of dirt compound the difficult angle making descending to the flat region tricky. Along with the rocks, which were typically no larger than a several centimeters in diameter, there were matted dead leaves, especially along the steep section, and dead branches. I saw a large fallen tree, at least 20 feet tall, that looked like it was a Birch tree, though it’s white bark had faded into brown. There were a few animal holes leading into the hillside, though none seemed large enough to fit much more than a large chipmunk–no more than 5 cm in diameter.

The vegetation is dense making it difficult to closely inspect the regions further from the cemetery. Though several of the trees elsewhere in Williamstown have started to change their colors, the trees in this area seem to still firmly fall under the category of completely green. There is only one evergreen tree in the area that I noticed, it was short, and very wide, and it resided in the flatter section closer to the river. I cannot identify many plant species, but I was able to notice that there were some maples, about 3 or 4. All were mature, large, and lined the outer boundary between the cemetery and the woods—none had trunks located more than a few feet into the woods. These maples had helicopter-like seeds still attached, but had not seemed to have dropped any yet. Large black spots of about 2-3 cm in diameter are ubiquitous on the almost all of the maple leaves. I looked at some maples along my walk back to my dorm and do not see any spots on their leaves. There are some oak branches, with brown, crispy leaves under a maple tree, but I do not see any oaks. Next to these oak branches is a paper cup and some evergreen leaves. I think there might be yard trimmings, as they seem wholly out of place and are not far from well-manicured grass of the cemetery. Furthermore, I wonder about if the maples might have an been planted as they seem to fit in better with the trees around the cemetery than the other trees in the sections of woods.

Along the ground there are small bright orange bulbs in clusters of about a dozen, which were about 1 cm in diameter. There were flowers that were white and large, yellow and small, white and small, and purple and mid-sized.  I noticed several Sumacs complete with the red clusters of fuzzy looking tiny spheres, along the steep section. The large trees, small ferns and grape vine, with leaves punctured with holes, that had lost most of their grapes that dominates the steep section, seem to give way to more shrubbery and smaller trees no more than 15 or so feet tall. Some of these plants have berries–some bright red berries and some purple ones. I think that some of these smaller trees might be ash, but I cannot be sure. I cannot identify these plants. The area is small, but seems relatively diverse in its plant life. The only animal life I actually see is a large contingency of pesky mosquitoes, though I do see a spider’s web hanging between two maple braches.

Gordon Smith

Natural History of the Berkshires

9/13/09

0: Initial Site Description

For my site at Mission Park, the area I decided to investigate was the wedge-shaped section between the two paved paths leading south that has been let go to seed. This area has obviously been manipulated to certain extents by humans: there are beaten paths cutting though it, and it would be easy to suppose that at some point it has been mowed. There is not, however, evidence to suggest that animals are eating the plants in the area, which again would be true in the middle of the college campus.

As it stands now, the area in question contains a variety of plant species. There are approximately 20 trees, about half of which are deciduous, while the other half is coniferous. The conifers were all very similar, both in size and type, leading me to guess that they are all the same species of tree, though I do not know what species this is. The deciduous trees are a bit more varied. There is a large oak tree, several maples, including one whose leaf resembles that of a Canadian maple, and a few grey birches. Interestingly, it seemed that the coniferous trees were concentrated towards the center of the area in question, while the deciduous trees seemed to be on the edges. This may suggest that the deciduous trees are younger, growing up around the shaded edges of the conifers. This idea is supported by the fact that deciduous trees are more shade tolerant than conifers.

There was also a large amount of variety among the low-lying plants. The first distinction is between the plants in direct sunlight and those in the shade cover of the grove.

In the non-shaded area, the majority of the plant life was a tall, thick grass. Interspersed with this grass were several types of flowers. There were buttercups, a yellow flower that resembles a dandelion (though it is growing at the wrong time of the year) and a plant with many small, tubular, purple petals.

Under the trees was far less grass, and far more leafy plants. These plans included ferns, clovers, and other types of low lying leafy vegetation. The majority of the ferns were a bright but pale green in color, with rounded ruffles and with the fronds towards the tip connected. This type of fern was mostly found in large, dense patches on the west side of the area, though there was a patch on the east side. The other type of fern was sharper in its ruffles, darker in color, and less densely situated.

The clovers were scattered throughout the site, but the largest concentration of them was in a patch on the south edge, where they were also larger. Types included simple three leaved clovers, clovers with three heart-shaped leaves (that taste like lemon), and large, single leaved clovers.

The other leafy plants were concentrated mostly in the center of the grove. The two main types were a single stemmed plant with five leaves sprouting in different directions and a three-branched plant, each branch of which had three small leaves. These two types were found in almost all parts of the grove, but again were larger in dense patches in the center of the grove.

There was also a species of white flower that grew only in the shade of the trees. It is a small flower with a yellow center and about 10 thin white petals. These flowers, however, seem to be about at the end of their growth period, as many of them are missing some or all of their petals and are drooping considerably. Interestingly, these seem to be the only plants in this condition: all of the deciduous trees and low-lying plants still hold their summer vibrancy and health.

The only bare earth in the area is around the bases of a few coniferous trees in the center of the grove. This space is piled high with the remnants of pinecones: the scales as well as the cores litter the area.

October 1, 2009

Thursday 6:30 PM – 7:10 PM

I knew had a limited time to check out the woods because I saw the sun setting.   It was 50 degrees out and I had my head lamp just in case I wanted to stay a little later.  I was finally getting a better idea of how to mentally organize the plants I saw and I realized when I recognized a couple of plants at my site for the first time.  I spotted some winged-euonymus and multiflora rose growing in several places.  I also see a leaf in the shape of a pointed oval with serrated edges and a sandpapery roughness on top (I know I’ll have to take a sample to figure out what it is later).

In the midst of all of this, I see a brown moth, about 1 inch long.  I can’t identify it for certain, but I think I should return another time at night to see what else lurks when the sun is down.

October 2, 2009

Friday 3:29 PM – 4:33 PM

I arrived late this time, having to wake myself from a deep afternoon siesta.  Staying alert was difficult since a light rain had just fallen and sky was nothing but grey.  A few, inch high, brown mushrooms appear to perk up where I had previously seen none, but the moisture does not have the same effect on me.  I wonder, is the rain I smell really a smell, or is it really a lack of scent, all pollens and aromas to the ground in the precipitation?

Either way, I knew the mosquitoes could certainly smell me.  Be it my exhaled carbon dioxide or simply my movements, they knew I was nearby.  A large one landed on my jeans and I see it stands no chance of penetrating my denim.  It pauses beneath my left pocket, probing the small ripples in the fabric.  After about 7 seconds it seems to give up, but then moves down about 5 inches, and tries again.  Once again, it moves its proboscis to reach a gap with her supplemental iron.  I watch her systematically reach the bottom of my pant leg, hit my shoe, and begin coming up my leg 6 inches to the right, checking for gaps every 6-7 inches eventually reaching my shirt, following the same down, over, up, over… pattern again and again.  Unfortunately for this mosquito, its persistence ends with an interest in my face.   The same determination that suited her before, lands her on a soft spot atop my right cheek.  I swung my right hand onto my cheek, slapping myself and the mosquito, in the first of several injuries today.

The next occurred when I spiked my right hand on one the shrubby trees I saw in the interior.  It was one of a series of young black locust trees whose trunk spikes stick straight out about half an inch.  They also appear that they are growing very quickly; a small black locust has already begun to incorporate fallen branch into its bark.

The third injury came from one of the many multiflora roses who dot the interior of Stetson after which I literally tripped upon further evidence of past human activity.  Evidently, five of the small trees in the center of the lot stem from a single stump.  Following the branches out of the stump, I see a number of large leaves that resemble an ash, (I’ll return later and check out more).  Looking at the relatively (four or five years perhaps?) young growth of these trunk trees and the growth in the core of the site it seems as if people tried very hard to eradicate the growth in the middle of the Stetson.  I again wonder if this land once used for camping.

I think the site must have been ideal.  Wild garlic mustard dots the ground, and the scent reminds me of just the spices in its name.  A single solitary black birch marks a place next to the large (2-3 feet wide) rocks in a messy pile that sit on the southern side.  I can almost imagine a campfire in the low flat area in the center of the woods with hotdogs and birch beer.  You could sleep in the Northwestern quadrant on soft ground interrupted only be a few shistos rocks.  If no one had camped here before, then I would like to be the first.

On October 1^st, around 4:00 P.M., I set out again for Tyler House Woods. The weather was cloudy and around 50 degrees Fahrenheit. As I came upon Tyler Woods, I noticed how fresh and cool the air smelt. It was a rejuvenating feeling to breathe in air that felt so clean and soothing, a feeling that cannot always be replicated within the city. It was the smell of autumn. Signs of autumn were also evident in the trees which had finally begun to change color. Right in front of me, as I walked up Tyler Road, was a sugar maple adorned in a gown of bright orange. It was the first tree that had changed color in my site. At the foot of the maple, were also a number of asters in bloom, and next to the asters were the honeysuckle bushes which were still producing their small, red berries.

Walking down Tyler Path, I noticed that there were more bottles today, and I could still smell the faint aroma of beer coming from the bottles. While examining these bottles, I stepped on a log, which crumbled underneath my feet. I again noticed that on the right side of Tyler Path, most of the ground is covered in rotting debris; I noticed the smell of these rotting materials gave off a moist, earthy smell which permeated throughout most of the woods.

Further down the slope, I found a pile of rocks scattered around a few sugar maples. I took out my pocket knife and began to scratch at them to see if I could identify them. The first rock was round and smooth, and my knife left no scratches on its surface. I realized that this rock was quartzite. Looking around, I noticed that there were many samples of quartzite within the area. I moved on to another rock which looked different from the quartzite. I took my pocket knife out again and began to scratch at its surface. This time the knife made an impact. I could now see multiple scratches on the rock’s surface. I also noticed that the rock looked somewhat layered, and, with my knife, I was able to break off small slices. I concluded that this rock was schist.

After examining the pile of rocks, I made my way to Periwinkle Valley. By now, the Periwinkle blossoms were now all gone and just the leaves were left. I did smell a sweet perfume-like smell, like that from a flower. Yet, besides the asters, few flowers were present.

I then walked through the Periwinkle Valley to the Barred Owl Tree. I have not seen the barred owl since my first sighting, but while I was climbing one of the fallen trees near where I saw the owl, I noticed a few droppings within one of the nooks of the tree. Whether these were from the barred owl, the grey squirrels, or the many chipmunks that I see frequently within my site, I cannot be sure. I also have not seen any sign of the woodpecker which has left multiple marks around Tyler Woods.

While jumping down from the tree, I frightened a chipmunk, probably the fifth chipmunk I had seen that day. I then made my way past the Barred Owl Tree to the houses beyond. A sweet smell was coming from the house which smelled something like fabric softener, another reminder of how people have a direct impact on the atmosphere within Tyler Woods.

As I began to leave Tyler Woods I received one more new surprise. Just under the honeysuckle bushes, I saw a small rabbit chewing on the grasses which grew beside the road. It scampered away just as I took a picture. I believe the rabbit had white fur under its tail, making it a cottontail, but I cannot be entirely sure.

An hour after I had arrived, the last thing I heard was the bark of a dog in the distance, and the smells, sounds, and sights of Tyler Woods were left behind.