Today, I went back to Houghton Garden. It was colder than when I went on my "nature run" last week, yet it was much sunnier. When I began my nature walk, I looked for fungi in dark and wet places, as that is the only way I knew how to find them. This walk soon became much more involved than my previous one; when I spotted a particular fungi species, they were usually off the trail. I climbed through the brush of the "woods" many times to get a good shot of an interesting fungi.

As I walked, it was helpful to think about the different ways in which fungi are different from other organisms we've studied. When I wasn't sure whether something I had found on my nature walk was considered to be a species of fungi, I thought about the niche in which I found it. Typically, I found fungi on dead and rotting pieces of wood (or other plants). It made sense to me to classify the organisms I encountered on dead plants as fungi because they play an important role in decomposition within ecosystems.

I went on a "nature run" in and around Houghton Garden. It was a beautiful day yesterday, and it was a bit chilly when I went for my run. I saw lots of cool plants and bugs while running through the garden, but I only took photos of things that I only saw once or twice (for the most part). I wanted to grab a picture of the chipmunks I saw a few times running through the forest, but they were too quick for me to do so.

I think I was focused on finding things around the forest that I hadn't seen more than once or twice because I was interested in finding the organisms that were the most sparsely populated within the garden community. While I was running and observing, I was thinking about the different measurements of diversity that could be measured within the Houghton Garden. I think that there is a high amount of species within the community, but (and this is especially relevant for the tree species) I think that there is a relatively low level of species evenness.