4:38 PM
Observational Trisect in Site Alpha
I am getting a slightly later start today, but it is still sunny in Site Alpha. I set up a 10-foot trisect, which I marked with black string and wooden coffee stirrers. I did not have a tape measure, but I measured out every two feet of string with a yard stick. At the moment the first 5 inches of the trisect are in shade, but the rest is in full sun. When standing at Data Point A, my shadow runs longer than the trisect itself. I was surprised by how little territory ten feet covered; for some reason I was imagining a study of a much larger area. The oak tree is to my left when at Point A, and the side of the trunk facing me is lit up by the sun. There is very little grass (even dead grass) surrounding the base of the trunk, but there are small piles of what look like spent blooms from the tree. The dried brown strands are about two inches long and have small flowers every 1/8 of an inch or so. I believe that the tree is either a pin oak (Quercus palustris) or a scarlet oak (Quercus coccinea), based on the appearance of the acorns, seven-lobed leaves, and dried blooms. I will have to investigate this further. There were also small rocks and pebbles near the base, as well as acorns/acorn fragments. The oak is lightly and sporadically coated with grey-green lichen, and at the very bottom go the trunk (near the soil) hard, dark green mounds of moss can be found. There is also an unfamiliar weed that is roughly 1 3/4" in height.
I have seen the same reddish brown ants that I noticed yesterday, as well as some black sugar ants, climbing up and down the length of the tree. Occasionally I would even see a medium-sized black ant. I wonder why the ants run up and down the tree in such a way. Maybe they are foraging or hunting? There are so many branches, acorns, and pebbles on the ground that they leave red impressions in my skin if I sit for a few minutes. It is now 4:55 PM, and all of the data points are in the shade; that happened faster than I expected. I hear some of the same sounds that I encountered yesterday: planes flying overhead, traffic on Mass Ave, the wind in the leaves, and a bird chirping. I hear crickets, which I do not remember noticing yesterday. There is also something that sounds like metal being hit together, maybe from someone in one of the dorm kitchens.
I am at Point B and have noticed that a little black ant is running along the length of string that I put down. I wonder if it is easier for it to travel along the string than over the ground. There are pinkish-white balls all over the ground here. At first I thought that they were white pebbles, but they seem too uniform and numerous to be rocks. I counted 21 of them between Point B and C. The balls are about 1/8" wide. They could be pieces of road salt or fertilizer pellets. I was able to crush one between my fingers.
As I was writing a brown jumping spider hopped up onto my leg. I tried to get a photo of it, but it was difficult because it rarely stopped moving. Each hop it made covered about an inch, so it did not take long for it to reach the oak tree from Point C (a distance of about a foot and a half). I can hear an insect call from a tree beyond the parking lot, but it is not one that I recognize. A tree cricket or katydid, perhaps? There is a shard of clear glass between Points B and C. The bench near Point D has dirt and loose webs on its legs, but I do not see any spiders. The crickets are growing louder, I just heard something buzz by my ear, and a black gnat of some kind landed briefly on my leg. I am glad that there are more insects/arachnids present today. I heard four bird calls, but I do not know enough about birdsong to say if they were from four different species.
I decided to count the number of acorns in the area between Points D and E and one foot to the left (so a rectangle that is 2'x1'), and found 23 of them. I realized while counting that it was a somewhat difficult task to complete without defining what counted as an acorn, as there were many fragments, caps, and immature acorns. Something to keep in mind for next time, I suppose. I have also been wondering if I should note in which cardinal direction my transect faces (N,S,E,W) and if I should start using the metric system for my measurements.
Between Points E and F I found a grey bird feather that is about 4" long. I have entered into an area with less grass than the other data points. I spotted an acorn much larger than any that I have seen previously. It has no cap and is about twice the length of the other acorns in the area. I wonder if it was carried here by an animal, or if there is another species of oak nearby that I have not noticed yet. It is 4:30 PM now, and suddenly there are house sparrows (Passer domestics) in great numbers. I can see a group of about 12 near the basketball court, pecking at the grass and occasionally chirping. I wonder if they are drawn to the edge of the basketball court because the grass is still green over there, which may mean that there are more insects to find. They seem to be rather comfortable in the urban environment, and the group has grown to about 20 now. They were not frightened by two loud firetrucks passing, and a male got about 5 or 6 feet away from me before flying elsewhere.
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