Environmental Awareness

For this week’s environmental biology assignment, we were told by our professor to find a little spot of nature and, carefully, sit in it to observe the nature around you for at least 20 minutes. She continued to tell us to be safe, and namely, not to sit in a dark forest alone.

So! For this assignment I took my studies to my former hometown… well kind of… Basically, I went and found some dark forest at the bottom of the San Bernardino Mountains and sat there alone to study nature in its best… Or so I thought…

As I arrived on this cold, cold, cold night, I discovered that nature is very peaceful at night, and also very hard to observe. After awhile, all I could hear was the sound of the wind and frogs in the background, 

and all I could see was dirt, exposed rock, trees, and small herbs and shrubs. Due to limited vision and cold temperatures, I decided to pack up my show and come back later on in the week, just as I did.

At a second attempt to observe nature in the mountains, I arrived at the same location, just a few hours before dark. This time I observed both more biotic and abiotic factors, both from nature and from humans. As I walked down to the location where I would sit, I could hear the song of birds chirping and singing in the background, it sounded as if these birds were both up high on top of trees, and on the ground. As I walked near my destination, I observed some very small birds diving into shrubs and twigs, which led me to believe that resource portioning has taken its course. Thereby allowing different species of birds to use different parts of the same resources so they can coexist.

I then observed two rabbits in the far distance running away, so I thought that wherever they ran off to might be a good place to sit to observe nature. As I walked over I observed some type of 


trail left by two different types of animals, one appearing to be a deer, and the other a possible rabbit or coyote (I’m obviously not an animal detective). This is where I decided to sit. From this point on I observed many things, both created from humans and nature. For example, I saw cans, fences, a cone (don’t ask), wire, a telephone pole, an airplane overhead, and some oddly large piles of some type of destroyed brush and trees.

Old Fence

Wired Fence

Pollution

mysterious piles of
cut up wildlife

On the nature side, I observed twigs, trees, mountains, moss, leafs, animal prints, and many, many, plants (some that I had never seen before, and could not identify). 

In the end, the biotic things I saw and heard were:

1. Frogs

2. Trees

3. Plants/Weeds

4. Birds

5. Rabbits 

6. A worm

7. Moss

Abiotic:

1. Wind

2. Dirt

3. Rocks

4. Mountains

5. Telephone Pole

6. Airplane

7. Litter

8. A fence

9. Barbed Wire

10. Dead Leafs and Twigs

11. A Cone

In conclusion, the most interesting part of this assignment was observing nature and how both biotic and abiotic factors affect one another. Most prominently, I found it intriguing how biotic organisms reside with one another, and how their adaptations allow them to extract the same resources as other species, but in different ways, such as the aforementioned birds. All in all, I think I'll be spending a lot more time in the nature.... Just not at night....