Update 10/22

The vegetation at my site changed a surprising amount since my last visit. The most noticeable change was in the leaves of the Yellow Birch. Almost all of their leaves had turned yellow when I arrived. Due to the large amount of Yellow Birch on my site, this had quite a profound effect on the visual appearance of my site. The birch also had begun to shed their leaves, giving the organic horizon a much more yellow appearance, as opposed to the rusty brown hue it last had due to being composed mostly of White Pine and Eastern Hemlock needles. Speaking of the conifers on my site, they remained relatively unchanged since my last visit, as they do not lose their needles in the fall/winter. The few adult Red Maples on my site showed evidence of changing color (mostly yellow), but do not seem to be losing their leaves at the rate of the Yellow Birch just yet. Meanwhile, of the three fern species on my site, only Cinnamon fern seems to be turning yellow and dying. The other two species (Christmas fern and Eastern Hay-Scented fern) remain as green as ever. As Cinnamon fern is the most abundant of these three, the overall look of my site is very yellow at the moment. I managed to identify these ferns by finding a list of Vermont Fern species and looking at enough images of each on Google to narrow in on what ferns were on my site.  One other minor change that I noticed was in the singular Barberry on my site. When compared with when I first discovered it, it has very few berries left on it. In terms of animal activity, I was discouraged at first, having only spotted a chipmunk scurrying around the woody debris, and a lone chickadee in one of the adult Hemlocks. However, I picked a nice log and sat down to wait for a while. Eventually my patience was rewarded as I began to hear some loud bird calls. I had no idea what they were, but soon two beautiful Pileated Woodpeckers flew into my view and began pecking; one at a White Pine and the other at a Red Maple. The one on the Red Maple caught my interest as it kept putting its head into a large hole in the tree that looked like a nest, although I know it isn’t nesting season. They remained on my site for about ten minutes before flying up over the hill. Based on the hole in the Red Maple, I am sure I will be seeing these two Pileated Woodpeckers again. In the photo below, you can see the hole in the tree and just barely make out one of the woodpeckers to the right below it.   

Perry, Leonard. “Native Ferns.” PH for the Garden, pss.uvm.edu/ppp/articles/nativeferns.html.

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Introduction

My Phenology site is located in Centennial Woods. It is compromised of a ferny valley and the two hillsides that border it.

Directions

To arrive there, you follow the main path from the entrance of Centennial. When you have gone across the creek and arrived at the clearing, follow the path that goes down hill. This path continues straight until you arrive at the telephone lines. After entering the cleared area where the lines run, turn right. Follow this path briefly until you approach a bridge over the creek. There should be a small path to the right shortly before the bridge. Turn onto this path, and you will soon arrive at a few wooden pallets covering a mucky area. The valley is directly to the right of these pallets. I chose this spot because it contains a lot of my favorite plants, and requires a nice walk to get to.

Trees

There are three dominant tree species in my site. These species are Yellow Birch, Eastern Hemlock, and Eastern White Pine. The Birch mostly inhabit the northern portion of the site, while the Hemlock and Pine are more common throughout southern portion. The Birch and Hemlock range from saplings to fully mature. The White Pines however, are by far the largest trees in the area, both in height and diameter. There are no White Pine saplings present. There are also quite a few Norway Maple saplings towards the southern end, as well as a few Red Maple saplings and a handful of adult Red Maples. Most of the trees are found on the hillsides, not in the valley itself, so many of them are growing on an angle towards the valley.

Woody Plants

There are a few normal Buckthorns in my site, as well as one Barberry. There were two other types of woody shrub that I am unable to identify at the moment, but neither occurred frequently.

Vegetation

The non-woody vegetation in my site is comprised almost entirely of ferns. There are clearly three distinct species present, although I would not feel comfortable identifying them at the moment.

Other

Moss is abundant in my site. I have found at least three different species, one of those being Star Moss. The other two I currently cannot ID. This high amount of moss goes in tandem with the large amount of woody debris in the site. Much of this debris seems to have been decomposing for long amounts of time, and has given rise to moss and at least six different mushroom/fungus species. The organic horizon of the substrate is composed mostly of White Pine needles and Yellow Birch leaves.

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1UCNWwi5XG1WJkU9ORCZero5TfeLGOOJG&usp=sharing

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