January 28, 2019

Back in Burlington! Second semester and my second phenology spot. I decided to change my phenology spot from last semester partly because I wanted somewhere closer to campus and because I wanted to spend time in another part of Burlington. Now, my spot is in the Redstone Quarry, a place that I often ran by last semester, and so I thought it would be cool to explore it more! It was very sunny (but cold!) when I visited last Monday.

My phenology spot.

To get to my spot from campus I take Prospect St. towards Ledge Rd. where I turn right. About halfway down the hill on Ledge Rd. there is a foot path on the left side of the road that goes back towards the quarry. Following the foot path directly leads you there and down by going down a couple of rocks. The other way to get there is to follow Ledge Rd. all the way to Shelburne St. and turn left. After following Shelburne St. you turn left on Hoover St. and follow that all the way to the end before it turns into Redstone Terrace. There is a small parking lot/clear spot there where another footpath begins. Both ways lead to a small bridge that leads to the quarry. My phenology spot is just over the bridge and to the left a bit, surrounded by trees on one side and the cliffs on the other. Both my phenology spot this time and last semester had exposed rock formations, which is cool.

44.4610, -73.2049

At my phenology spot I did find tracks! I think they might have been a cotton-tail rabbit that was moving towards my phenology site and the quarry rocks and away from the surrounding neighborhood. The tracks were very nice and clear in the snow. They crossed an open part of the snow directly and disappeared onto the concrete of the neighborhood on one side and back into the trees on the other. I checked for signs of the rabbit possibly still being in the trees, but could find none. It wouldn’t surprise me if the rabbit lived somewhere in the Redstone Quarry.

In addition to lots of little shrub plants, at my phenology site there were deciduous and coniferous trees. I was able to identify box elder trees (which I drew below), ash trees, and a possible maple that was up too far on a cliff for me to get close enough to.

  Mix of desiduous and coniferous buds. Unfortunately, my phone decided to die in the cold after this, and I was less able to get a good picture. 🙁

Box elder drawing

 

 

 

 

 

 

All pictures are my own.

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