Tyler Starr
8 September 2008 from 1858 to 1923
Location: Along the Mill Steam on the North bank between Rogers Music Center and the library
Weather: About 80 ̊ F, but much cooler in the shade. The sun is setting and will soon disappear behind a building. A small amount of wind blows through at about 5 mph.
General: I sat in the same location where I did my first observation (see 29 August 2008 in field journal). It was interesting to compare observations. The two spider webs that I observed earlier are both no longer there. I wondered how often spiders have to weave a new web. I remembered one time when I watched a fairly large spider back in Minnesota as it weaved a web. It was amazing to see the efficiency and precision with which the creature acted. When I returned the next day, the web was gone and the spider nowhere in sight, as the web was weaved in a crowded area near where I worked. A friend told me that yesterday, in the same spot that I sat, she observed a crawdad or similar animal crawling around in the stream. She said it was orange and about 6 inches long. That would be cool to see. I focused a lot on a small patch of a black moss attached to a rock immediately in front of me (see picture). It was a small clump, about the size of a quarter. I could see many of the miniscule brown sporophyte stalks spurting out from the gametophyte body. It reminded me of biology last year when we learned about the evolution of plants, as they conquered land, developed vascular tissue, utilized pollen, and eventually fruits and flowers as means for reproduction and seed dispersal. I was fascinated by the evolution of plants and animals and look forward to learning more about it in the coming years. The Field Guide gave a nice description of mosses on page 88 that refreshed many of the facts on bryophytes that I had learned last year.
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