My phenology spot looks quite different than it did before spring break (and what it most likely looked like a month ago)– no snow! It was just about 55 degrees Fahrenheit and mostly sunny when I visited. The first thing that I noticed when I got to my phenology site, besides the fact that it was pretty muddy, was the birds. There were lots of bird noises. I stood still for a moment on the path to my phenology site and saw what I think was an American goldfinch. As I was looking around my phonology site I kept hearing a woodpecker, and wandered a few feet away from my site to see if I could find it. I found the few trees where the noise was coming from, but did not see the woodpecker itself. Although there have been birds at my phenology site before, even in the winter, there was a noticeable difference in the bird activity happening. It was not quiet at my phenology site because of all of the bird noises.
I was looking around my phenology site for any trees that might be beginning to flower, too. There are quite a few northern white cedar trees at my site, so there aren’t as many deciduous trees to begin with. The deciduous trees that are present were not really flowering. There were some more shrub-like plants, however, that were. One in particular caught my eye, and I uploaded it to iNaturalist to learn what it was. According to iNaturalist it is a willow, and is most likely young because it looks a lot more like a shrub than a tree right now.
In addition to flowering trees, I was looking around my phenology site for wildflowers. I did not see any (although I found chives), and was giving up, walking back to where my bike was, when I saw some blue wildflowers. I’m not quite sure what they are, but I did a sketch and uploaded the picture I took of the flowers (both below) to iNaturalist.
Things are still just starting to come back to life at my phenology site. It will be interesting to see what appears in the next couple weeks!
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