SIT QUIETLY

 Hello again! This week, the blog post is all about being absorbed in our surroundings. I was really excited to do this blog, because it gave me an excuse to escape from my responsibilities for a little while, and it just allowed me to just sit and relax for a bit. The assignment was to go outside somewhere, whether it be our front or back yard, or the park, and sit quietly for at least twenty minutes. Although it was relaxing, it was not exactly complete “down time.” As part of the assignment, we did have to keep track of all the different things, biotic and abiotic, that we saw while outside. I decided to go to one of my favorite parks near my house and sit in a grassy area under a relatively large tree. I originally wanted to come to this park around the time when the sun sets, but time limitations came up and I went at 3:00pm. The weather was roughly 75 degrees, and even though the sun was very warm, the shade from the tree made it really nice and cool where I was sitting. It was the perfect weather to go out and do my sitting.

At first, I was not seeing a whole lot of “things” around me, but as I began to sit for longer and longer, I started to notice more life around me. The first biotic factors I noticed were people, I saw a good amount of people walking by, sitting, or riding bikes. I also saw a lot of different plants and trees; most seemed to be planted there purposefully, but some were growing wild. Among these plants I saw large amount of shrubs, most of which didn’t look familiar to me. I also saw some plants that I was able to identify with my Wildflowers of Orange County and the Santa Ana Mountains book that I used for my Botany class last semester. I saw a plant which I knew was part of the sage family, but it was hard to tell, because a lot of the plants were dried up. Looking at the book, I believe it might be Purple Sage, or possibly Pepper Mint. I also saw a shrub that was covered with bees that I believe might have been part of the Rosaceae family, and I think it looks closest to Ribbonshanks (or Red shanks). Another plant I saw a lot of (pictured below), seemed to be more ornamental, and it looked like a hybrid of a Monkeyflower, which is in the Phrymaceae family. After looking at the book, it looks closest to Fremont’s Monkeyflower. 

One of the most obvious relationships I observed from the plants was the mutualistic relationship between the bees and the flowers of the shrub. The bees received nectar from the plant, and in turn, the plant was pollinated. Also, I noticed that a lot of areas of the park were very dried up and dead, so it’s possible that secondary succession could take place in these areas, or may have been already taking place.

I also observed a lot of animal and insect life. Some insects I saw were dragonflies, butterflies, small flies and gnats, ants, and pill bugs—which, after googling them, are apparently not even insects. The animals I saw were squirrels, dogs, small birds, and some sort of predatory bird that may have been a hawk. I did not see a lot of interaction between the animals or the insects, but I did notice that a lot of the tiny flies I was seeing were in the grass, which may mean that some of them eat the grass, causing them to be primary consumers, since the grass is a producer. Also, the hawk is a secondary consumer or higher, depending on what it eats, but it could eat something like a squirrel, which would make their relationship between one another predation. Also, after doing some research I found out that dragonflies will sometimes eat butterflies and other insects, which would give them a predatory relationship as well. The birds and the predatory insects I saw could be in competition for food in this area, because they both eat similar insects.

Some of the abiotic (or nonliving) factors that I observed were rocks, a lot of woodchips, structures—like houses, lampposts, sidewalks, walls, playgrounds, and benches— dirt, and some small amounts of water. While I sat in the park, I really was among an ecosystem, which is defined in the book as, “All the organisms in a given area plus the physical environment in which they interact” (179). It was an overall really nice experience, sitting and observing inside of my “sphere.” After about thirty minutes, I found myself not wanting to go back home and not wanting to face all my responsibilities. I plan on sitting quietly more often after this assignment.