Visit 4

October 28, 2011

5:30 P.M.

Sunrise: 8:12 A.M.

Sunset: 6:40 P.M.

Length of Day: 10h, 28m

Temperature: 43º

Organisms: Today, I noticed that it wasn't as noisy as the last couple of times.  There weren't any birds or insects that were making noise.  There were many squirrels this time though.  Almost every minute I would see a new squirrel while riding my bike to my area.  I went down to the pond again and I think that the same tracks from last time are still there.  They appear to be the same ones but look a lot less fresh. In the pond, there were at least five ducks that were swimming around.  Otherwise, there weren't many organisms that I saw or heard this time.

Research Question: The pattern has changed from last time.  The trees closer to the pond have a few or no leaves left on them but they didn't lose any leaves per hour while I was there.  The trees an extra 10 yards in, however, had many leaves left on them and 8 leaves per hour while I was there.  I think that the reason for this reverse in leaf fall rate is that the trees farther in have many more leaves yet to lose and are starting to lose their leaves much more quickly, like the trees closer to the water did last visit.  I also think that the leaves on the trees closer to the water were more crispy and dead than the ones farther in.  When I tried to pull one off of the tree closer to the water, it was much harder to pull off than the one farther away from the water.  There was almost no green today because all of the trees have completely changed color.  It was much different than last time.