Bench at Mill Stream

Observer: Estella Yee
Date: 09 September 2008
Time: 1441-1510
Location: N of Putnam Center, across the Mill Stream, Willamette University
Weather: Clear, 88°F

I believe I found the most benevolent spot to rest in the entire campus, here on the opposite side of the Mill Stream. A single bench marks the spot, contributed by the Class of 1997 for their 10th reunion. Today the weather is sunny, the sky cloudless, and the temperature 88°F. This spot allows me to view a main central point of campus with people lying about the bank of the stream, splashing the water with their feet and reading on the luscious grass. Simultaneously, the spot is secluded from others, giving me the opportunity to unwind a bit and recharge. The Mill bubbles about me from the east to the west, curving along Jackson Plaza. A maple tree with smooth grey bark shadows the bench that I sit on, creating a haven-like atmosphere. It is not an easily accessible place. One must walk around the rear of the Smith Auditorium and stroll along the back for about 50 paces eastward. Bark-chip laid around the area is perhaps a year old, not displaying the fresh look of newly cut wood. Grass hesitates its flat range of growth at the east end of the bench and grows sporadically in clusters along the concrete wall lining the stream. Black-eye daisies are in full bloom and starting to appear inverted, with their black flowers forming a conical shape and the rays aiming diagonally downward. Nearby, a slender Japanese Maple appears newly planted. At 1449, a squirrel is chattering behind me, hiding the trunk of a 20-foot shrub with elliptical leaves radiating from the branches in a whorled pattern. The shrub also sports round black ½ inch berries. The squirrel had a straight bushy grey tail with black horizontal streaks. It digs in the ground and looks up frequently as if afraid someone would catch it in its activity. Then, as if aware I was staring, it scurries forward a few inches and looks up at me, allowing me to see its white underbelly. A little while later, it climbs the shrub effortlessly while using the tail for balance. Following such, it commenced to gnaw on pinecones and drop them at intervals. A small bird also flew overhead toward the University Center, perhaps a swallow. In my observing, a grey spider dropped down onto my laptop. Its torso was full and circular. At 1501, another squirrel joined my friend. Are they related? A family? I can clearly see that its fur is brownish grey with a white undercoat. I can say with near certainty that it was a western gray squirrel, or Sciurus griseus. Both squirrels appear well fed and one of them later left its perch to climb up a deeply furrowed conifer tree with drooping branches, a sequoia most likely.