Sunday, February 5th marked the first time that I was able to visit my phenology spot and record information since the new semester started. I do not remember visiting my site with this much snow on the ground before, so I was excited to check it out with an inch or two of solid snow. The underbrush and debris from the trees still poked out from the snow, so instead of having a blanket effect on the land, it was like a heavy dusting of flour or powdered sugar. One of the first things that I noticed about my spot was the excess of rabbit tracks. I would say that these rabbits were probably hopping around, looking for food. The tracks did not seem to be distressed. The hind feet on the tracks were about 3-3.5 inches long, which would lead me to believe that a cottontail hare created them.

One new and interesting bit of animal evidence that I noticed on this particular trip was a new birds nest. I found it in-between the boughs of a cedar tree, relatively low to the ground. I found this height to be very interesting because usually, bird’s nests are pretty high up in trees to ensure their safety. It was also quite a large nest. This speculation leads me to believe that this might not actually be a bird’s nest. However, if it isn’t a birds nest, I have no idea what it could be.

I did not notice too many different types of trees since I recorded them last semester. There is still the presence of white oaks, sugar maples, green ash, eastern white pine, eastern hemlock, and sumac. Most of the trees have visible buds, although many of the branches are too high for me to reach. The buds were mostly hard, small, and brown.