Colin's Wicked Cool Phenology Blog

           For the Spring Break phenology Assignment, I returned to the phenology spot I went to over Thanksgiving break. This spot is my town’s town forest, and is build around some wetlands that used to cover all of our town. This town forest was first created in 1930, when over 100,000 different trees, including red and white pine, spruce, and balsam were planted by townspeople and boy scouts. Before this was done, the land was all part of a large wetland, with small islands. Now, the forest is in the middle of an estuary to the Ipswich River, and most of the forest is surrounded by this marsh habitat.  

          Many of the bird species that live here make their homes near the estuary, and can be seen when near the waters. While I was sitting in my spot, I heard a sharp “Tit, tit” bird call, with several breaks in between. I looked, up, and in the highest branch of a dead tree by the water, I saw a red wing black bird. I could tell because of the beautiful and distinct red tip on the bird’s wings. There were several other red wing blackbirds nearby, as well as many gulls flying far overhead. There were other birds flying by, but I could not figure out which birds they were. Also, while I was walking to get to my spot, I heard an owl hooting off in the distance.

A red wing blackbird!

         While at my spot, I noticed the trees were all starting to get larger buds. I live outside of Boston, which has been experiencing slightly warmer weather. The pine trees all looked well, there were not many brown needles that I could see. This means that there had not been a lot of frosts following the recent warm weather. I went to my spot before the nor’easter hit Boston, so I wonder if this was changed after the storm. I also noticed that some of the oaks in the forest, possibly a swamp or a white oak, still had some of their dead leaves, which I thought was odd. Overall, the woody plants at my spot seemed to be in good condition.

Two wild Wolves!

Picture of my Reading Spot

Sources: http://www.readingma.gov/conservation-division/pages/town-forest

My phenological area can best be described as a Silver Maple-Ostrich Fern Riverine Floodplain Forest, which is a natural community in the Northern Green Mountains. This community is characterized by floodwaters that run into several bodies of waters, including the Winooski river, which is the river that runs by our spot. These habitats are also characterized by cold winters and short growing seasons, and include public land such as Mount Mansfield and Camel’s Hump. They are also characterized by high elevation and cool summer temperatures. The area is inhabited by white-tail deer, beavers, and squirrels, all of which I have seen evidence of in the spot. Furthermore, our spot is composed almost entirely of Silver Maples and ferns on the ground, so this type of natural area made sense.

Since I last left our spot, much of the snow has melted, and the river has become significantly larger, in both depth and width. The once small river is now rushing, enough to catch a lot of fallen woody debris against the tree that I usually shimmy across to get to my spot. The ground on the other side is muddier, but there is no collection of water anywhere. The largest difference is that the river is much larger, and the most of the banks have been covered by the stream. I wonder if at some point the water levels will become too high, and the island will flood, making the spot unreachable.

Looking at Biofinder, I learned a few things about the spot. The first one, is this area is labeled as highest priority by the Vermont Conservation Design. The spot is also a class 2 wetland, which explains why the area might be higher priority. This spot is also near a high priority wildlife crossing, which means certain animals could stop there at some point, adding more value to the area. Also, certain rare and uncommon animals species make their habitats right next to the spot, also adding ecological value to the land. Finally, Biofinder showed that my spot is an uncommon Palustrine natural community.