Eco-Diary: Day 1

Week 2 of the B.Ed. program at Trent University and I’m in love with being a student again. University classes where the instructors actually engage students in discourse is a totally new thing for me — my experience as an undergrad at the University of Waterloo was of anywhere from 100 to 400+ students jammed into a lecture hall. At that point, even if a prof actually likes teaching, there’s not much more they can do besides lecture. The smallest class I ever had at Waterloo (and not until I was in my fourth year) was 25-30 people. That’s about the size of my biggest classes here. So being able to actually discuss ideas in class with other students and the profs is exciting.

First assignment for my biology class: create a photographic ecology diary. Essentially, this is a longitudinal study of a particular natural feature, designed to sharpen our observational skills so that we can promote those same skills in our students. I’ve chosen to focus on the stream I cross on the bike path on my way to and from campus every day.

Here's what the creek looked like on Day 1, August 31, 2012:

I’d intended to choose something simpler and more specific, like the sky, or a particular tree, or the plants struggling for survival at the base of the telephone pole outside my apartment, or a foot of shoreline where I’d at least have a reasonable chance of cataloguing the majority of the macroscopic life, but this stream is just too nice a spot. I love the idea of taking time every day to just sit and observe nature at work — something that, despite working in conservation/environmental education for the last couple years, I’ve neglected just as much as most of my contemporaries.

Despite the fact that this is an aquatic habitat, the first thing I noticed here were the wildflowers, primarily raspberry (too late for berries, unfortunately),

jewelweed,

 

this plant that looks like like a mini-cross between a maple and red oak but is neither,

and this mystery flower. (Update: It's turtlehead (Chelone glabra).

Stay tuned for IDs and fun facts about these plants!