Nature Journaling

Mount Sutro:

• This is Mount Sutro. A Park owned and maintained my UCSF. It is a large forested park behind UCSF hospital a 5 minute walk from my apartment.Mostly heavily forested with some more open areas around the edges.

• Dirt and gravel paths run through the park.

• This area is very hilly and lush. The forest is dominated by huge old Eucalyptus trees. Obviously not native to this part of the world these trees were planted all over San Francisco in the late 19th century by Adolph Sutro.

• This first observation was conducted in a fairly clear area near the edge of the forest.

• This is where I sat on the remnants of a brick ring that circled the tree before the tree out grew it. Makes me wonder about trying to control or confine nature.

• Sunny, warm day with just a hint of wind from the north west. It has been raining for a few weeks and everything seems so lush. How has the activity changed with this new weather?

• I can hear birds high in the tree canopy and occasionally see them flit about. What is all their chatter about?

• I still hear the traffic on a nearby road.

• I can faintly make out the rustling of the grass and bushes as the wind passes

• I see grasses, low vines with shiny green leaves even the single vine has a multitude of shades of green.

• Can smell rotting material under the grass. Some fallen eucalyptus leaves and branches.

• Under the grass are other plants trying to grow. Will they emerge from the shade of the grass?

• Is the tall grass weakening this tiny blackberry bush and resulting in it being eaten by insects?

• Will this bush survive to shade out the grass?

• In a crack in that crumbling brick wall I sat on, this beautiful little patch of moss is growing.

• Can we learn about building or growing things in constrained places from this organism.

• How is the moss attached, how does it get water and nutrients?

• Looking at the bark on the tree I saw this small insect. I believe it is a Rove beetle.

• What happened next confirmed this.
  

• I guess I got too close taking this picture.

• Rove beetles are know to cure their abdomens up in a way that looks like they are going to sting. Just a bluff though these insects don't sting. What can we learn from this protective bluff? Applications in safety maybe instead of warning signs things can be made to look dangerous?

• Under some of the really smooth vine leaves I found this. Looks like spit. Has little yellow flecks in it.

• How does this adhere? Is it protecting some thing? Does it hurt the leaf?
  

Can we develop exude-able temporary structures?
This post feels to me like a bunch of really random observations, Sorry for that. I got really engrossed in examining closely what was happening in these different small scale habitats. On in and around the bark, under the grass and on the bottom of the leaves.
Stay Tuned for more next week!