Diario de andrewpatrickvo

Today, Friday, September 30, 2022, I took my first nature walk on campus at the Pine Tree Reserve. I peacefully walked the path through the reserve carefully observing my surroundings. It was quite peaceful, surrounded by an overwhelming amount of green on a bit chilly but refreshing day. There was barely anyone walking around on the path at the reserve which made myself more comfortable by myself to observe and capture photos of some of the plants and mosses around me. I took several pictures of mosses on rocks and trees, a lady fern, a burdock leaf miner that was semi eaten by something and some lichen. To connect this material back to class, it reminded me of the cenozoic era where there were flowering plants and a surge in biodiversity in plants. It was very peaceful to just take a break in the middle of my day and observe the semi-natural beauty we have on campus with the Pine Tree Reserve.

For this 2nd iNaturalist nature walk, I walked around upper campus looking for natural landscape and plants for about 35 minutes. For this one, I woke up early with some coffee and just strolled around. The weather was brisk, but very calm and serene because there was no one else around me so it made for a very relaxing morning. The way I can connect this back to one of themes from this week is to look at my observations from a microscopic level. If we were to look at some of the pictures I took from the species on the rock from a microscopic level, each one of those species are microbiomes: biodiversity around us. Additionally, I just tried to capture some images of species that I have not captured that were not planted and looked to root naturally around a plant that was planted unnaturally.

In today's nature walk I was specifically looking for mosses, flowers, evergreen trees, and ferns on my walk down to the reservoir and back. On my way out of my dorm I was able to capture some images of moss growing on a tree and some spruce tree leaves, which looked like green needles. As I was walking down to the reservoir I also captured some more moss growing on some cement by the bookstore. Additionally, by the reservoir I was able to capture some white and yellow flowers, and then on my way back I was able to spot some ferns. I think that this relates back to what we are learning in class because I was able to capture the 4 main groups of plants. Overall, it was a great experience noticing all of the colors and fresh air during this beautiful fall season.