Field notes 10/9/2025

 Date: 10/9/25

Time of day: 5:00-5:30 PM

Present climate conditions: Dry and sunny

Length of day: 11 hours, 21 minutes

Temperature: 62 degrees Fahrenheit


Map (corresponds to data table, now updated through data set #3):



Changes since last visit:

- No Jack in the pulpit plants near location nine (see the map above)


- More pin mold/hairy poop mold (below), this time farther up the river, closer to sites 4 and 5. Previous mold was closer to sites 1 and 2. 

Animal feces are clearly visible below the mold in some of these pictures. It also appears that this mold grows on different types of animal feces as the feces in the top few images are different shapes compared to the feces in the bottom few images. 


- Creek now clogged with leaf litter in some areas (more than before)


- Leaves changing color (poison Ivy, hazelnut tree)

The two above are Hazelnut, the two below are Poison Ivy. 


- Some ferns died, especially those farther than three feet from the water's edge


- Trash thrown into creek from nearby road


Organisms felt, smelled, or heard:

- Many squirrels running up trees


- Something moving in the bushes on the hill by location 1


- Chipmunk ran only a few feet in front of me then darted under a dead tree


- Rolly Pollys near a clump of moss


- Small animal hole in the ground


Pictures from the same location:




(See "field notes 9/8/2025" and "field notes 9/20/2025" to view previous pictures from this same location)





(See "field study part 1" and "field notes 9/20/2025" to view previous pictures from this same location)



Questions/more observations:

I noticed the two ferns below in my last trip. The light green one is a silvery glade fern, the kind I have been documenting on the data table, but the dark green fern is a Christmas fern. 


I wonder why this is the only place I have noticed the Christmas fern? I also wonder how many types of ferns there are in the forest my field study is in?



Bonus: Response to comment on "Field notes 9/20/2025"

*There were no more mushrooms, but the pin mold I discovered is a fungus*



Life cycle of a mushroom:

1. Spores are launched into the air from a mushroom

2. Hyphae are formed when spores germinate after landing in an area with fitting conditions

3. The Hyphae join with other compatible hyphae to make Mycelium

4. The Mycelium knot, making a formation called Primordia. 

5. The Primordia mature and grow into the mushrooms we see, and then the cycle repeats.













Comments

  1. hc biologyOctober 17, 2025 at 3:55 PM

    Excellent work! Be watching for patterns in the color change and leaf fall.

    ReplyDelete

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