Smashing pumpkins

Observer: Estella Yee
Date: 11-5
Location: Botanical Garden bridge between the gardens and Belknap
Time: 1530-1551
Weather: Raining, overcast skies, 47.5˚F

The Mill Stream was filled with dirt today as the runoff from the land was washed into the waters. It was still lower than ever due to someone controlling the height of the stream somewhere to the east. For whatever purpose, I felt that the wildlife was suffering due to the decreased water. The mallards seemed to have a harder time finding food and there have been fewer birds about the Mill Stream. Two pumpkins were left over from the smash-fest during Halloween. Anonymous somebodies decided that it would be hilarious if they could take their carved pumpkins and see if they would bounce on the bottom of the stream. That made me wonder, were the pumpkins returning to nature? After all, they would eventually decompose into…something. A big leaf maple, clothed in golden drapery, overshadowed the stream, unheeding the mess beneath its slowly baring branches. Moss covered many of its branches in return. Earlier in the month, there were many cedar waxwings that had roosted there, yet now, there was only a hummingbird, a black-capped chickadee here. An occasional crow was more likely to be seen. Two mallards rested slightly upstream, a drake and a female, watching a squirrel gorge himself on the cracked corn spread along the shoreline. Leaves from the aforementioned fell softly into the dirt of the stream, barely swept away by the low stream of water. Rocks instead caught the large leaves. At the side of the bridge, moss heavily covered the concrete, yet not enough to hid the three heavy pipes lining the lowered area.