Diario de millscf

This walk was one of my most enjoyable ones. It was pretty cold but I had my coat so I was comfortable and it was quite calming. I started off deciding from many organisms how I was going to begin and that's when I saw a maple tree. I struggled to find the best angle to take a picture of it because of how tall it was but I figured it out. As I continued my walk the my main struggle was picking what to and what not to observe because of the vast amount of plants that were around throughout the walk. My goal was to diversify what my pictures by different types of spermatophytes and bryophytes and not stick to one or another. That is when I started looking for mosses. An knew from past experience they tend to grow at the base of tree and rocks. I continued my walk until I found angiosperms (particularly one with fruit) which I was lacking in my observations, however, I was not fully sure the type of plant it was specifically. Then my last 2 observations were pine trees which which I know pretty well then a type a weed or small sapling I did not know what it was specifically but iNaturalist helped me. I was very enlightened to the many different types of plants out there.

My second nature walk wasn't really a walk but more like a jog. I decided to take this opportunity to kill two birds with one stone: complete my assignment and not gain the freshman fifteen. The run started with me observing fungi growing out of a dead tree. This was notoriously where I would suspect most mushrooms to be since many are decomposers, breaking down dead material. This is where the majority of my search was. I don't know how to classify these fungus specifically so I tried my best. For my next few observations I did notice mushrooms that were coming out of the ground. They were all very unique. One had this crust like substance on the top (when I tried to look it up the only thing that came up was pizza) that I had never seen before, and some others had this type of white fuzz around it. My guess would be that it was mold. The most interesting observation I found was this fungus that was growing on this dead branch that was bright orange. This really caught my eye as I was running past it because it covered the majority of the branch and was like a blanket of decomposition. The most notable thing from my run was the amount of diversity in mushrooms and fungi there were and the different ways they grew and flourished. I find it very interesting.

My nature walk was one that has been right next to my dorm and I have been meaning to go and this was my opportunity. I started off noticing a lot of chipmunks which I already put down for my test run post so I wanted to spice up my observations. As I went deeper into the woods I noticed a stream and saw many small bug flying around it. One in particular was the crane fly. When I was a child (and maybe into adulthood) I was terrified of crane flies for some reason. It was something about their legs. I was so terrified I did research to find out the name and now I can identify them in the wild. The rest of the walk didn't yield much besides trees which were beautiful but I don't really know the names of many trees and how to identify them besides birch but I couldn't find any. When I was in my slump I decided to take a picture of this squirrel as well as the mushroom. Afterwards as i was walking I noticed this patch of moist loose dirt which I know is the prime place to find earthworms. This is because of the many times as a kid I would search for them in my backyard. Sure enough one was barely under the surface. My last observation was almost out of desperation because I couldn't find anything so I decided to check out knocked down trees because I know many decomposers and other insects love them. As I pulled back some back I saw this larva and after looking it up I found it to possibly be the hermit flower beetle larva. If not it is some other type of wood grub.
The day was beautiful for a nature walk and I observed a lot of life.