It’s April, and this time of year means a lot of different things. We’re finally in full swing of spring (which seemed to almost never arrive this year), Austin is looking greener than ever, and we’re starting to feel the dry, Texas summer heat. Most importantly, though, it’s nearing the end of the semester! Right now, it’s crunch time, and I’m loaded with a bunch of papers and tests to study for, so I could only find time to make a couple trips to Red Bud this month (due to being out of town as well), but taking some time out of the craziness and stress to finish up my observations here takes some of that burden off of my shoulders.
…the most fun lies in seeing and studying the unknown. – Aldo Leopold, A Sand County Almanac
Observing this area has really been fun. Now, I’m so accustomed to the area and coming here that at this point, I don’t really go out of my way to make observations. I choose a spot and just sit with my notebook or computer, taking notes of what I hear and see around me. Now that we finally have some steady sunshine, I like to sit out on the end of the Isle on the roots of the massive tree noted in my previous posts. The view is beautiful, the breeze is nice, and I can see everything that’s happening in and around the water surrounding the Isle. (I apologize about the rotated pictures; for some reason it won’t let me rotate them in the browser)
One significant change happened during this month: bugs! Bugs are everywhere now. Since we’ve had pretty steady sunshine for over a month now, a lot of the insects and birds are starting to become more visible. Dragonflies were the most prevalent insect I observed; they loved to buzz around the water’s perimeter.
Other very active insects I noticed were butterflies, moths, and caterpillars. While sitting under the tree taking notes, one caterpillar fell straight on my lap! Unfortunately, I was startled, so I freaked and slapped it off of me (sorry Mr. Caterpillar). While my friend Kate was sitting, a pretty cool moth landed on her leg long enough for her to take a picture!
Although I still can’t see much actual wildlife, the signs are more apparent. What once was a silent, solemn (but beautiful) place to observe earlier in the year has become a vibrant, colorful area with wildlife booming around it. Bird chirps are constant and various; it sounds like there’s more species variation then I had previously expected (even if the species are limited to just birds). The noises come from not the Isle itself but the surrounding hill/forest area, where the brush is more condensed and the animal life is probably more prevalent.
People are out and about more than ever, and can I blame them? It’s been gorgeous outside the past couple of trips here. I happened to sit next to a small group of guys fishing, and while they seemed experienced, they never caught anything for the duration they were there. According to some research I did on the river area, fish population is pretty minute so it’s probably not the best place to fish, but they seemed to have fun doing it anyway.
So, this is it. It’s been wonderful having an excuse just to go outdoors and chill. I feel thankful for having this assignment since it urged me to get off my laptop and appreciate other things in life besides funny Youtube videos and internet memes (don’t get me wrong, those are great, but it’s a nice change). I’ve seen Red Bud Isle go through some drastic changes in the past several months. The first time I came here, the leaves were a bright orange, there were little people around, and the place seemed barren of life. Now, in the full swing of spring, the place is full of life and recreation. I enjoyed this place so much that I also made it the topic of my semester project, and I’ll probably continue to come here next year to study or go jogging on the trails.
More than anything, I think this assignment has helped me take what I’m learning about in class and apply it to real life. The topics we covered in class like species richness, biodiversity, human-environment interaction were all topics that I reflected on and able to observe in real life. Having time to observe and reflect upon nature is something pretty special, and definitely made me more mindful and appreciative of the environment around us. Once I started going outside to do this assignment, I started going outside more in general. Another thing I paid attention to was my mood; I realized that I feel much more relaxed and generally happier on days where I get some fresh air, and that I can even work more productively if I take my assignments outside to a quiet place.
A couple of words stood out to me in the word cloud. I particularly like that the words “beautiful” and “noticed” were common themes. I think this assignment helped the class notice things about their areas of observation that they hadn’t before, and most definitely made us all see the beauty of Austin and its nature areas. This assignment pulled us away from the status quo of school assignments and made us learn so many things about places we weren’t all familiar with before. For me, it wasn’t even a chore; I love the outdoors and everything about it. Being a business major with no particular interest in any sort of science, i went into the class with low expectations and didn’t expect to get much out of it, but I definitely got a lot out of this assignment and enjoyed the whole concept of the course. The environment is something we need to pay more attention to! It does, after all, support life on Earth, so we should show at least a little bit of support for it as well. 🙂