Phenology At Centennial Woods

Howdy Folks!

It’s finally looking like we’re getting into springtime here in Vermont, and I decided to spend one of these beautifully sunny days in Centennial Woods! I’d gone out on my adventure with a group of friends who planned on bird-watching at the feeders that were dispersed throughout the area, and was excited to see just what this warm weather had in store for us. Although I kept a weathered-eye out for signs of amphibians, we did not encounter any vernal pools or ponds that would be conducive to amphibian living conditions. There was also very little green at this point in time; no flowering trees, no wild flowers beginning to sprout, just a few mosses and grasses here and there. What I did see, were a plethora of song birds at the subsequent feeders we visited! My list ended up including tons of black-capped chickadees, a few sparrows, what could’ve been a gold-finch, and what I’m pretty sure was a dark-eyed junco. I included a drawing I made of a chickadee in this post for your visual enjoyment.

Looking at Centennial from a landscape ecology perspective, Centennial has many edges as it is adjacent to a populated, urban area. While this may take away the potential for some interior species, there are many flourishing “edgy” species in the area. There have, however, been spottings of bobcats, fox, and other more interior species in Centennial. It is a harbor for many species, but has definite traces of its nearby urban neighbor, such as trails, debris, and man-made clearings. That’s all for now, enjoy the attached pictures, drawing, and of course this amazing spring weather!

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My phenology spot over my spring break may not have been the most exciting of places, but its purpose was served nonetheless. Here in Burlington, I spent my spring break rather snowed in, with little to no form of transportation other than walking. So, I decided to adventure around the small wooded area right behind my dorm building! The natural history of this place is pretty much non existent on any internet sources, but I can infer a few things just by looking around the area. One, the whole area was at one point wooded, and eventually deforested at the UVM campus expanded and there was a higher demand for living spaces. Two, the area may have been used as an area for walking trails, as there are still remnants of some developed paths there now. As for bird activity, I did not see any signs of nesting or any birds for that matter, other than a few gulls that flew by over head.

The vegetation in this area was very similar to that which is in Centennial woods. Red and sugar maples, a lot of beech trees and some Eastern white pines spattered through compromised most of the area. There was little to no ground vegetation because of the snow and ice that had pretty much taken over any leafy plants. This being said, there were some buds on trees from the earlier warm days we experienced, but other than that, only conifers showed any signs of green. 

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1tqkyXDyhrm3aC7xDq6AhZVOBZn4&usp=sharing

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With the weather being as wacky as it has been recently, I was very excited to go out and see my phenology site today, and to add to my excitement, I woke up to a lovely blanket of snow this morning!  While it was a little chilly, the temperature was pretty mild with light flurries coming down as I made my way to Centennial Woods. My area looked very similar to how I left it off on my last visit, with a few exceptions. Scattered among the mud and snowy areas were green clover patches, ferns, and other green-y under growth plants that were not visible just weeks ago! I gather that they were making their appearance due to our abnormally warm weather this season, but none the less, they did not seem to be holding up so well out in the brisk cold and snow this afternoon.

Trees were looking about the same, with no signs of budding, and green showing only from our conifer friends. I did, however, happen upon another pleasant surprise. A set of tracks running across the trail caught my eye, pretty clearly marked because of the new snowfall. I followed as far as I could before I lost them, and included a few pictures in this post (below). From what I could tell, they were cottontail prints, which might explain the dog prints that accompanied them for some ways.

Through some observation and reference to Wetland, Woodland, Wildland, I determined my site to be an Upland Natural Community, specifically and Oak-Pine-Northern Hardwood Forest Formation. I made this identification based on the climate of the Champlain Valley, the variety of trees and other plant growth in the area, and the soil type, which all matched up with the description given in the book.

Following this, I looked up my area on the Vermont Biofinder. I found that almost the entire area was a highest priority surface water and riparian zone, which makes sense due to its close location to the city. I also found areas of representative physical landscapes, interior forest blocks, rare species and natural communities. This place has a lot going on for being so close to such an urban area!

Enjoy the pictures posted below and have a great spring break!

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Well if you haven’t noticed by the new title, we’ve moved locations! The once Oakledge Park has now become Centennial Woods, mostly for convenience sake in this snowy weather. We have a lot of new stuff going on here in our new area, which by the way, you can find embedded in the google map below. For one, we’ve got a whole new group of tree species to take a look at! These include but are not limited to: American Beech, Eastern White Pine, Box Elder, Sugar Maple, Red Maple, Norway Maple, Paper Birch, Yellow Birch and more!

Not only are we seeing new trees, but new signs of other woodland critters as well. In my excursion to centennial this week, I encountered bounder prints, which I believe had come from a bunny of sorts, as well as a plethora of nibbled buds and twigs.

That’s all for now, again, below is the map along with some pictures I took to supplement your reading. Have a great rest of your week!

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Hoping everyone had a lovely Thanksgiving Break! Though a lot of mine was spent working, I did get a chance to visit one of my favorite natural spots (one of the few) in my home town. The Neversink Mountain Preserve is not only a gorgeous system of hiking/mountain biking trails that offers beautiful views of the surrounding area and underlying city, but has a really cool historical background as well.

http://www.goreadingberks.com/articles/article.php?articleID=3

I highly encourage you to check out this website, which gives a pretty detailed look into the mountain’s history, but if you don’t feel like it, I’ll give you the abbreviated version. Much like Vermont, Neversink at one point, had very few trees and natural life because of the heavy development that took place on it. However, unlike Vermont, it was hotels that were being built on the mountain. These were pretty high class spots, much like the modern-day resorts you might see tucked away on mountainsides today. To get to these hotels and attractions, a trolley system was put in place that carried passengers from the bottom of the mountain to the top by riding along the Neversink Mountain Road. You can still see remnants of buildings, and even the frame of a trolley car that ran off the tracks if you travel far enough up the road, which is now a hiking trail. What led to the demise of all of this was a terrible fire that started in one of the hotels, burning it almost entirely to the ground, as the whole thing was made of wood. Again, this is just the broad background story, the rest is very interesting so give the website a look!

Here is a map of exactly where the mountain is, in case you’re ever, for one reason or another, in Berks County and want to check it out: 

And last but certainly not least, enjoy some photos I’ve taken of one of my favorite hometown spots!

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Hello again! I wanted to post some pictures I’ve been taking along the way and have failed to transfer to my computer in order to add them to my posts. Here is some of the beauty I’ve had the pleasure of experiencing throughout this project, featuring various family members of mine. Not all of these are my specific place, but were taken during my explorations of the entire park. Enjoy!

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This may just be my favorite post I’ll have made so far! I was so excited to be able to incorporate art-based assignments into my blog as it’s something I’m quite passionate about. So, that being said, in today’s post you’ll be able to see a nice palette of my artistic abilities, some good, some not great (my drawing skills in particular tend to be quite sub par…) Let’s start with something I’m a little bit more confident about: poetry. This is an untitled piece I came up with the other day and I hope you enjoy it, and that it allows you to place yourself in my area the way I feel when I am in it.

***

It’s the loudest silence you’ll ever hear

No words

No cars, no metal

There’s nothing to distract from what you are

Where you’re going

There’s no then and later only now and now and now

The rustles bring you to the present

The breezes keep you there

It’s red and yellow then brown and brown and brown

It’s blue it’s white it’s gray, gray, gray

And yet beautiful

You still want to capture it

The way the space looks how you’re feeling

Tuck it away so it’s yours forever

So no other eyes see the beauty you’ve seen

Your beauty

And yet you want to share it

You want them to see this beauty that you have seen

And everyone to hear the silence be so loud

To know no industry

To see only earth

To touch and learn and love what you love

To help and heal

To care for this thing that is truly ours

This only being

This entity we take for granted in our selfish human way

 ***

For your next taste of my artistic ability, enjoy this picture of my event map! An extremely creative way of interpreting place and the things about that place that mean something to you…

Again, drawing skills may not be the best, but I hope it allows you to see the kind of things that drew me to my spot.

Moving on, let’s talk a little bit about the actually phenology of my spot since that’s what this blog is all about! In general, there haven’t been a whole lot of changes from my last visit. More leaves have made their way to the ground, which has made part of my trip there a bit more treacherous in the slip-and-fall department. Just as last time, we’ve been getting quite a bit of precipitation which has made some f the surrounding area quite saturated.

In terms of wildlife, I actually managed to catch a glimpse of a cardinal, which happens to be my favorite bird! He (red feathered and all) was perched for a short period in the eastern white pine that stands closest to the lake on my spot. I actually was able to identify his call before I saw him, though they are pretty hard to miss.

That’s all I have for you today boys and girls, enjoy the rest of this week and fingers crossed that some snow comes soon!

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Aaaaaand.. we’re back folks! This week on Oakledge Phenology, we’re featuring a poorly, hand-drawn map of my beautiful little site. It may help you find it, it may help you get really lost in the depths of the Island Line Trail. But, either way, it gave me an excuse to release my inner child and finally break out the sixty-four pack of crayolas I’ve been just dying to use. But let’s talk about the important stuff. It’s been a week since I last visited my spot, so what’s changed?

Let’s start with the most noticeable change, the weather! This week went from a toasty almost eighty-degrees, to a chilly forty with plenty of rain to go along with it over the weekend. I visited the park this morning, Sunday, so the impact of the weekend’s weather event was quite evident. The color in the leaves is still there, so peepers beware. However, there were quite a bit more leaves on the ground than there were last time. The ground, by the way, was very saturated. Because my site is on a bit of a hill however, the ground in the surrounding area was visibly more moist. As for non-woody vegetation, there was not a whole lot of it. Mosses and ferns were still present but not much other than that.

As for wildlife, I disappointingly did not see more than one squirrel and a view birds that I could not identify due to the distance between us. Neither the squirrel nor the birds seemed to be making a home out of any part of my site, but I did have my eye towards the sky in search for some nests. There was a squirrel nest in one of the larger maples present, but it did not seem to belong to my little friend who stopped by. Other than that, I did not notice any bird nests or other homes belonging to a furry friend or two.

Tune in next week to hear more about the beauty that is Oakledge Park! I hope to have more pictures up next week, and in the mean time, will keep an eye for any big changes happening in the environment. Have a sultry week everyone. Namaste.

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