Houghton Garden Hike, September 25 2023
I chose to hike around Houghton Garden in Newton, MA, to observe various organisms in the area. This was the first time I had been to this area, and I thought it was a beautiful area teeming with wildlife, which is less abundant when on campus. The weather was quite overcast and slightly rainy, which had also been the case in the days before this excursion. The slight chill to the air and the few trees with foliage gave the hike an autumn feel, a nice change from the hot summer days in MA this year. I saw several different organisms, from plants to animals to fungi. Several birds would fly past me and into the trees, and I even saw what I believed was a bald-faced hornet nest. Everything I saw in this area demonstrated a sense of high diversity and species richness. Certain organisms, such as ferns, were more abundant, while others were less abundant or hard to find. For example, to find organisms like worms, I had to look closely at the soil and observe darker regions of the area. It was also interesting to see how some organisms, like trees, had adapted to be taller to get more access to the sunlight. However, plants closer to the ground would be more abundant in the areas where a tree had fallen or there was not such a dense concentration of trees. It was refreshing to see these concepts of diversity and adaptation in the wild while enjoying a hike in the fresh air.
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