Study #4

October 18th, 2026

62˚, same temp as last visit, but lower feels like temperature.

Day length: 11hrs 4mins

Prior to this study I was in the Upper Peninsula for a couple of days. The colors were prime if not a little past, and it was such a juxtaposition to come back to green leaves on many trees. In my area of study, most of the trees in along the path are coniferous and so that adds to the effect. I looked again this visit, and the water level in the river had lowered considerably which is interesting because a few days prior, a fairly large rainstorm had hit.

 Porcupine Mt State Park

 Allegan State Game area

 More photos of the green trees in Allegan

 And here's part 4 of my 5 photo collage 

 Here you can see that the water level has yet again fallen.

 I should start calling this turtle log. Even on a day I probably wouldn't have been sunbathing, this guy was chilling.

There was a fairly chilly west breeze coming from the west.

Study #3

 October 8th, 6:00pm

Temperature: 62˚ F

Day Length: 11hrs 23m

Cooler than last visit with a light breeze

This was 100% the most interesting visit yet at this spot. As I came in on the trail I saw a small toad, and then later on another:

As I took the water level photo (using the car part for reference):

I saw a reflection on the water and looked up to see a bald eagle zooming over head. Unfortunately, it was gone before I could catch a photo, but it was beautiful. I walked along the trail portion of my area and I got some cool photos:

Cool moss:

My dad and I then went squirrel hunting further down the trail, and we saw two of them: grey, and fox.

Unfortunately they were both about 50' up in a tree pretty far into the woods, so I couldn't do my study. I did do some research however and found that the two species intermix regularly, which was something I was unsure about.

After we accepted defeat, we walked back and I got this photo along the river:

After making the 7 minute walk back to the car, we were unloading our guns and we heard coyotes from across the river. It was the perfect evening with a blend out birds mammals, amphibians and nature.

Study #2

September 27th, 2:45pm

Temperature: 71˚

Day Length: 11hrs 54m

Wind: 5mph

It has been a little under 3 weeks since my last visit. One very interesting change I noticed today is that the water has risen by at least a couple of inches as can be seen in the following images.

Again, the turtles were sunbathing on the log. This time however, I got a really funny photo of a little turtle on top of a larger one.

I also saw a heron flying over the river. Most likely this is because there were a ton of fish jumping out of the water.

Nature Sketch

 

Study Location Video

Video

Original Research Paper Link

The link to the study paper is here: Allegan State game area study

Study #1

 September 7th, 2:00pm

79˚, 2:00pm

Day length: 12hrs 53m

Well, I guess the first study was a success. I set aside about a one and a half hour time block to just sit in the study area. At first I didn't see much although, as always, the woods was alive with sound. I heard a splash in the water when I got there and I thought it was a fish at first but it turned out to be a group of turtles that used to be sunbathing. I left them and went back to my chair but I kept the log they were on in the back of my head. I snuck over maybe 20 minutes later and they were back, however, they didn't jump off.

Obviously, I would have gotten a better picture had it not been for the steep, loose hill in between me and the river.

I had heard what I thought were squirrels all throughout this time, but in the last ten minutes, I heard a squirrel bark. I looked for about a minute and then I finally heard a sound overhead. It wasn't a squirrel, but it was a woodpecker which was really cool. I was going to snap a photo, but my phone was dead. As I looked down in slight disappointment, I noticed movement on a tree trunk across the trail. It was an eastern gray squirrel. I then started my test. I kept my eyes fixed on the squirrel as I walked directly toward it at a steady, non-threatening pace. At 20ft away it scurried up the tree, however I couldn't see it afterwards as I was focused on measuring the distance to the tree. 

So, next time, I will definitely make sure my phone has more charge and I would make sure I had someone else to track where it goes. Before I go out again,  will certainly plan on also making a spreadsheet to track my findings with the squirrels and I will also have a video of the area prepared to help you better understand where I'm collecting my data.

Here is a sound map drawing of the area. The red spot is the location where I was sitting, and I have several of the other creatures labeled where I saw them, plus some other noises. I also encountered one bass boat with a full sized ladder (a little weird), and two kayaks, but I don't have those listed directly, I just say "Man-made water noises".

Finally, for this study, I'm taking one photo from the same location each visit to see how the area changes. Here is my first image: 

Thank you for reading this first post!