November 23, 2008

Today I visited my plot of land by Ridge Point and it was one of the colder days so far. Also the water temperature and air temperature have almost evened out. The air temperature today was 32 while the water hovered barely above freezing at 34 degrees fahrenheit. All of the leaves have gone away and a significant amount of snow has melted since monday (last time I was here) even though it was a pretty cold week. There really was not too many organisms although I did manage to find some more lichen hiding on a tree. I heard a bird but could not find it to take a picture of it. The water was just beginning to freeze along the banks of the river and I though it looked really cool so I took a picture of that as well.

I visited my plot today (November 17, 2008) on the first snowy day of the year. We got quite a bit of snow and it was fun to get out and enjoy the beauty of it on my plot. The air temperature today was around 32 degrees while the water temperature remained around 40 degrees. The snow is great although it made driving to my plot a little more difficult! The air temperature dropped below the water for the second time by the biggest margin of 8 degrees.

First traces of snow!

Lichen!

hardly any leaves left on the trees

November 10, 2008

I visited my field study plot again today on a very cold and blistery day. Once again I am reminded of the 80 degree days that occured about a month ago! The leaves have changed quite dramatically. The leaves that were there last time I visited are almost completely gone. It was a cloudy day with a cold wind and even some occassional snowflakes. The water temperature was 40 degrees while the air temperature was 36. This is the first time that the water temperature is actually higher than the air temperature. The difference of these two data points is -4 degrees.