Naturalist Perspectives Assignment: Identify Your Site Beta

  After listening to the TED radio hour, I decide to go somewhere close to home for my site beta. Rather than going out the front door and finding a place, I chose to observe my backyard. On Saturday, October 8th at around 12 o'clock it was 65 out and I sat on my back porch for a few minutes. I don't take advantage of my back porch as much as I should, simply because that is where the surrounding apartment buildings put their trash. Also, my table and chairs get covered in leaves and dirt from the trees right above. Inconveniently, I swept a day or two ago so you can not tell how many leaves have been on the table and chairs in the photos, but the stairs give you an idea of how the nature is incorporated into my living space.












  There is a hill with a wall of rocks with a few different trees on top. The leaves haven't changed color too much yet, but there are some yellow leaves. The leaves are beautiful when blowing in the wind, and the TED video helped to make me notice the beauty humankind and our own nature. Although there has been a refrigerator on top of the hill for weeks, its nice to see the nature is still thriving around the apartment complex's and making due with our interruptions, just like we are letting it be and keeping most of our garbage in a confined area.
   Humans are also a part of my local nature, and most areas. Like Emma Marris said, nature is where life thrives, and many forms of nature are thriving here. A neighbor came out on his porch and said hello to me, and this made me feel so human and one with my own element of nature. Although this was not on my recent visit, I have seen a man walking his dog on the back hill. The different animals I see that live in the forrest area, like squirrels birds and flies, have many similarities to the dog that lives in the nearby apartment. Although we usually do not view ourselves as animals, we are and we are part of this local nature. Our wooden homes are more similar to the wooden trees right behind them than we realize.