A walk in the woods in Lion's Bridge

     On October 27th, my class decided to be outdoors on the lion's bridge trail to see how the natural world not only communicates with us, but tries to show us how it's doing. I walked through the trail, looking at all the different species of tree, bush, and vine. The bush filled up small sunny spots between trees, while the vines gripped the trees, climbing up the trunk and branches to steal the sweet sunlight and nutrients from the infested tree.

    There was a sectioned off area set away for long leaf pine growth. The once native species looked exotic, as it was quite unique among the rest of the trees. They were once all over the area, but were used for lumber and now are endangered, thus requiring a safe area to grow. Unlike the wild forest around them, they were kept, and didn't have disease nor the amount of dying branches like the wild trees. It stood out from the rest of the forest completely.

    Through the forest I saw a few birds chirping, almost all of which in the top canopy, looking for food and communicating with one another. A few braver individuals were getting closer to the floor, picking at the forest floor, and one was looking around and making a different sound from the rest. That particular bird hopped tree to tree, ignoring me and constantly looking for something. It must've been looking for its mate, as it would know where its nest is, and a black bird wouldn't be looking around the treetops for food, as they eat from the forest floor. It showed me concern, stressfully turning its head rapidly to look around desperately, almost saddening in a way, what could've happened to its mate?

    I then went to a little forested area by the water and looked around. Under the floating leaves, I saw a school or two of small, baby fish from the breeding season earlier this year, along with minnows. They weren't as active due to the cooler weather, but they were still swimming as a group around the leaves for protection. The leaves are not perfect protection however, as a predator hid in wait of the school. The turtle shell popped up out of the water briefly then went back down, in search of food, let it be fish, large insect, or any kind of meat. In the same water way, a family of ducks swam around. The babies following the mama closely, focusing innocently on just swimming while the mom scouts for danger and food. A group of swans flew into the pond, tired from their tedious from their migration travels, resting and scouting for a quick snack before going in air again.

    One I got done looking around and feeling the environment, I rounded up all the classmates I drove there and we left class.