This weekend, I visited Lady Bird Lake again– same spot. Like the previous week, I sat on the edge of the lake right off of Rainey St. I was early this time, the sun had set less than an hour ago and It is dark. It is not as dark as it was the previous week, and the stars were not as visible either. The stars were almost nonexistent, I had to really focus on the sky in order to catch glimpses. The city was full of light, like it usually is–especially when looking at it from downtown. I started walking early that night in order to explore the other side of the lake. last week I began walking right from the spot, this night I headed towards the left of the spot.
As I walked, I felt very tired. The air was very humid and heavy. The night before there was a storm alerting a tornado. You could still feel the rain that drowned the area the night before. The soil was still pretty hydrated as well as the green around. I did not sit down on the ground like the week before, it looked the environment was still recovering from the storm the night before. I could hear a lot of commotion in the bushes– sounded like squirrels. I could not get a good look at what was making the noises, but I could see some movement out of the corner of my eye.
It was about 11 pm already, and it was getting darker. Not as much as the previous week still, but a couple of stars began to highlight the sky. The temperature did not feel like dropping that night. As I continued to walk, I began to feel drops of sweat as if the sun was still out and it had rained one or two hours ago. Finally I sat on a bench, and began to feel the pressure and heaviness reduce. Like the week before, I just stared at the lake. I noticed no movement for about ten minutes– it could have been I was distracted or still trying to catch my breath–, so I looked away. There was a large tree over my head, and I began to stare.
There was noise in the tree, except I did notice the three birds that were making the noise. There was one bird, which seemed to be a dark like color, shaking the leaves on one side of the tree, but it looked like he just remained on the same branch. Maybe a meter or two lower, there were two other birds– a lighter looking color. One was smaller than the other, but seemed to be making more noise than the larger one. The pair of birds and the darker bird seemed to be oblivious of each other. The three birds were making equal commotion; however, neither bothered each other. While the darker one was on the higher part of the tree, the other two birds were doing their own thing on the lower part of the tree. Like mentioned in class, different species learn to do their separate roles within the same community in order to fulfill their niche. This was an interesting example of what was taught in class two weeks before.
