Colin's Wicked Cool Phenology Blog

Hey everyone!

This is a drawing of my spot from a arial point of view.

I drew a picture of my spot from a bird’s eye view. In the picture I included prominent features such as the large Green Ash tree, a large clump of tall shrubs, and the river that separates my spot from the mainland.

In the week since I had last visited my site, water levels in the dry river bed had risen by almost two feet. This made crossing over to my spot slightly more challenging, as well as impacting some of the vegetation. There were some areas on the river bed where grass and some weeds had been growing, but now a lot of that area has been covered by the water. Furthermore, a lot more of the leaves on the trees have started to turn and more have fallen on the ground. When I went last week, most of the leaves were still green, but there is definitely some color now. The underlying foliage still looks the same as it did last week.

There is some solid evidence of wildlife using this area as a habitat. There seems to be a used deer bed in my location, as well as some scat near the bed. The scat looks somewhat older, so I do not think there were any deer there for a couple of nights, but it still seems that deer come through this spot. Also, along the shoreline, there is a lot of evidence of beaver activity. Many of the large trees have beaver teeth marks all around the base of the tree. The marks go at least an inch into the tree, but do not look very recent. I have also seen bird poop on the ground under the Ash tree on my site, which tells me that birds use that tree in some capacity. Overall, there is definitely a lot of wildlife in my spot, and I am excited to see more!

This is a picture of the deer bed near my spot!

Thats all for now,

More to come in the future

From the desk of Colin Brown Esq.

Getting There:

My spot is in the middle of Casavant Natural Area, right near Winooski. In order to get there, I need to take a bus from the UVM Medical Center to Winooski, and then walk five minutes along the Winooski river to get to the forest. Once inside the natural area, I walk for another minute and then I cross a small river, which is part of the Winooski and at this point in the year is very low, to get to a small island. After crossing the stream, I walk along the muddy bank for about fifty yards and then climb up the bank to get to my spot.

A mostly dry river bed that I need to cross to get to my spot

Standing at my spot looking over the bank

Why I Chose this Spot:

My spot is on the edge of the bank and the island, and is surrounded by some trees and a lot of shrubbery. I chose this spot because the vegetation is beautiful and luscious, and is also near the the river, which I think will be interesting to observe in the spring.

This is my the view from my spot facing the small island. This is why I chose my spot.

Vegetation:

The vegetation in my spot consists mostly of shrubbery, with a few large trees. There are almost no small trees, only medium to large trees. There are only two types of woody vegetation in my area, Green Ash and Silver Maple. The Green Ashes grow closer to the bank and are covered with ivy. The entire ground is completely covered with shrubs that almost come up to my ankles. Some the shrubs are ferns, but most of them are a species that I have not been able to identify yet. Within a few feet of the river bank, the vegetation changes, and taller shrubs that come up to my stomach take over. There are also a few large patches of tall leafy shrubs that are about a foot taller than me. These patches are very curious because they only grow in large clusters near the river bed.

The Green Ash is one of the two tree species in my spot

This shows the change in vegetation a few feet from the edge of the bank.

This is a picture of the tall shrubs that are only found clumped together.

Where to Find This place

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1FUjakeFYt8TUNy-evO3pSQtXofk&usp=sharing