jnatale20's Journal

I took a walk this week through Endicott Park in Danvers, in northern Massachusetts. It was a beautiful fall day out. It was sunny and 67 degrees. The sun was shining, and there was a lot of activity at the park. The park has a large pond/woods area. I approached my nature walk assuming I would find most of the invertebrates in the dirt or on trees. As I was walking along the path, I began looking at the fence that runs along the pond, and found an amazing variety of bug species there. When looking for invertebrates, I was not specifically looking for bugs, and so it just happened to be that these were the observations that I made. I was truly fascinated by the variety of bugs that I saw, ranging from color, to shape, to function. Some of them had colorings to blend in to the color of different leaves, and others (like the ladybug and some beetles) had bright flashy colors. Overall, it was a lovely walk, and I learned a lot about invertebrate diversity.

I went on a nature walk at Holt Hill. This hiking trail is owned by the Trustees of the Reservation, and is beautiful. The trail I took brought me to the top of the hill which overlooks the Boston Skyline. When I went on this walk, it was 68 degrees and sunny, a perfect fall day. There was a lot of plant variety, and I tried to capture that in my observations. Most of the plants I observed were low-hanging, and I found more variety within the shrubs at Holt Hill than the trees. Overall, it was a beautiful walk, and a great way to explore some of the plant variety in Northern Massachusetts.

Today I went for a nice walk around the Chestnut Hill Reservoir. It was sunny and warm, with a slight breeze. I went in the morning, and it was about 67 degrees outside. The reservoir was beautiful, and there were a lot of wild organisms to see. There were many ducks floating on the water, grooming themselves and searching for food. There was also a small section of wild flowers that the bees were pollinating. I crouched down and observed this for a long while. There were also two white butterflies flying around, but it was just about impossible to get a picture of them. Overall, it was a beautiful walk and I enjoyed engaging with the wild organisms at the reservoir.