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April into May

27 Apr

4/27

Stunned

Trees coming out of the winter rest ready to bear leaves. The strong winds blow and the cold winds howls as the trees are forced back into a premature stunt. The buds emerge but don’t form into leaves, why? They are ready yet they are resistant. Too much rain and too many cold days, a fall back before we can spring ahead

This week in my observance there was little change to note, other than the buds should have started to sprout as May is less than a week away. The bush in front of my house has gotten redder, and the street a little more green, but as I look across the street the trees are still thin and without leaves. The past two weeks and for the next week there have been about 3 days without rain, so much rain and no sunlight. Mud is everywhere and if I take my dog out the mud paints my shoes and his feet like no ones business.

Notes for 4/27

 

April

17 Apr

4/9

April showers bring may flowers. Most of this month so far have been lost to persistent raining, more than half of the days have kept me inside due to the precipitation. This being an expected seasonal trend is welcomed, but being quarantined it has sucked keeping me indoors. The strict regulations that New Jersey have, which have not been lifted, only extended, have limited what I can see. I am seeing the same thing every week without end, and spring is being dampened. The trees are budding yet I can only see few examples. Some oak standing behind the houses across the street, the grass growing greener, and the trees outside my own windows becoming fuller and more alive. The daylight savings times have made a difference in the light thorough the day, bu as we draw closer and closer to the spring we also get more light for the plants to absorb.

Notes from 4/9

4/17

A sign of life in such dull times. I have only heard them until this day, spring has sprung. The patience of waiting has paid off to show me what the outside world is doing. It is being reborn as the greens and reds start to reappear after hibernation. Something that I didn’t realize was correlated with all of the changes happening was right in front of me. My dog. He has shed his winter fur like crazy leaving our house a mess, as this inconvenience occurs it also shows the ending of winter. The changes of temperature is quite obvious in this transition, but now what is more predominant is the exposure the sun has each day. Each week it is brighter out later by a few minutes, the days are growing longer as the solstice is approached. Soon summer will be here as the days are at their longest.

Notes for 4/17

 

March: Awakening

29 Mar

3/21

The sun beams over head as the green of the earth begins to grow once again. Squirrels crawl out of their nests after the ice of winter has thawed. The chirps of birds sound like a love song toward the coming of spring that is well underway. The awakening is upon us. – Awakening by Tyler Sullivan

This week was what I can say an exemplar week for the coming of spring, and very typical of march. More rain than usually, followed by warmer temperatures between high forties and low 60s. The wildlife reflects this as now I can never not hear a bird singing or chirping. My dog is always barking at the squirrels that he sees through the windows, and I have spotted the beautiful cherry blossom being the first tree to bud. The change of a new season is upon us and we are saying goodbye to snow and freezing conditions. The always grey sky is now turning back to its warm blue and letting the rays wake up the life. While all of these things are good, the park down the street that I went to for my observations is shut down, cautioned off for protection of children for the virus. I am afraid that soon I wont be able to go anywhere, something that would shut my eyes on the changing into my second favorite season.

Notes for 3/21

3/29

Dark, Drab, and Dreary. The cold wet atmosphere of the day drags us all down. The signs of new and returning life begin to flood in just as the spring rain. March is almost over, and April showers will bring flowers. Yet we will not know when we can go outside and enjoy it with the animals. The buds of the trees wait to burst as do our minds from insanity. – Isolation by Tyler Sullivan

Sunday brought nothing but darkness and rain until the very end. Being in the mid 30s, the day consisted of grey skies and sleeting conditions. The governor of New Jersey has now made it effective for all residents in the state to only leave the house for essential items, like food and medicine. The complications that COVID-19 have caused a complete change in my life, and now I am left wondering whats next. What I do know is next is spring, the trees are preparing to bud, all snow and ice is melting away, and the birds are once again singing. The wildlife I can see is only grass, a rhododendron, a holly tree, and a Colorado spruce tree. All being species that remain somewhat active throughout the winter season, it is unfortunate to say that I cant get out to see the actual changes that are happening, I hope that this changes as soon as possible so I can once again enjoy the outdoors.

Notes for 3/29

 

February: Survival

23 Feb

My Spot

Wildlife Activity

Earlier in the morning on Sunday, the amount of wildlife that was visible was limited with only the occasional chirp of a bird. What was visible were tracks and signs of life that often frequents the area. Using the Mammal Tracks and Scat guide I was able to distinguish three different types of animals that interact within that area, being Grey Squirrel, Cottontail Rabbit, and Shrew. The gate and track size for both the Squirrel and the Rabbit were distinct enough to say with certainty that it is the respective animals, but the shrew was a long shot. The data found and presented in the guide varied little but it was the only thing that closely matched, leading to my assumption. The most common tracks I saw were the Rabbit and Squirrels with almost no other tracks sighted besides the one set of shrew tracks. What else is there that I cant see though? Birds are hard to track unless you physically see them, how often are they there? A game trail camera would be interesting to place and just observe.

Levine, L., & Mitchell, M. (2014). Mammal Tracks and Scat (Life-Sized Pocket Guide). East Dummerson, Vermont: Heartwood Press.

Grey Squirrel

The grey squirrel is a mammal that is native to the state of Vermont. I have seen tracks, nests, and holes in the snow that match perfectly with the Grey Squirrel. This medium sized tree squirrel uses its thick coat and body fat to stay awake all winter. Although it does not hibernate, to slow down its metabolism it sleeps for a majority of the day, limiting the burning of crucial calories. When it is up during the day, it will scavenge for food such as nuts, seeds, and buds and dig up acorns that it has buried in warmer months. At night it remains in its nest and sleeps, even though it sleeps for mots of the day. The main predators in the Northeast of the United States are hawks and foxes (Web).

There are many different interactions that the squirrel experience in its habitat, the main two are its relation to the oak tree and to truffles. The relationship shared with the oak tree is a very strong one, being the squirrel does many things in oak trees. Build nests, gather branches and twigs for the nest, eats the acorns on the tree, buries the acorns, and spreads the seeds for the tree to create saplings. On top of all of that, the stored acorns underground that squirrels forget about is just like planting a seed for a new tree to grow, which is just like its other relationship (Levine). The squirrel can eat truffles, which when eaten, processed, then expelled, spread the spores to grow in new locations (Fitz). Both species of plant benefit from this relationship as do squirrels showing a mutual flourishing. These relationships can be found in most areas where the squirrels can be found.

Fitz, M. (2016, November 9). Squirrels and Truffles. Retrieved February 23, 2020, from https://fitznaturalist.com/2016/11/09/squirrels-and-truffles/

Levine, L., & Mitchell, M. (2014). Mammal Tracks and Scat (Life-Sized Pocket Guide). East Dummerson, vermont: Heartwood Press.

Web, A. D. (2020). Critter Catalog. Retrieved February 23, 2020, from http://www.biokids.umich.edu/critters/Sciurus_carolinensis/

Phenological Changes

Compared to the month of January, the changes into February are very slim, the only major difference is that there are no more residual leaves clinging on to trees. Another thing different from last month is the snowfall, there is much more snow than last time which has led to everything that has fallen like branches and leaves to be concealed by the deep snow, unlike last time when the snow wasn’t deep enough to hide everything. It is also much warmer, unseasonably warm one would say, it was 43 degrees Fahrenheit when I went to my spot when last month it was a mere 15, a remarkable difference for a little less than a month apart in the same spot. The warmth is changing nothing as of now though for today was a warmer day and has not been the trend of the whole month, as far as next month goes, I expect a warmer temperature and less snow to be on the ground. As well as it being harder to find evidence of animal activity, but more physical animals and plants emerging from winter hibernation.

Field Notes

 

January: Endurance

17 Feb

This winter at my spot there have been multiple changes. There are no more leaves on any of the trees, not even withered. The landscape is all colorless with little greenery and plant life still not in hibernation for winter. Everything is now covered in snow, when I left for break there was patches still left untouched. There is also new methods of tracking, with the snow leaving better visuals to track. The ponds near my spot have also frozen over since leaving, causing the life that splits time on land and in water. To conclude, the life that is visible somewhere is the grass poking through the grass, which looks defeated and unhealthy. I do wonder though, what went on in my spot while I was away? What did I miss while I was gone, were there animal tracks that were covered by snow? There were people there based on litter, but doing what? I am curious as to what went down to degrade my spot by other humans. How can I stop this? I cant, yet human moral may.

List of Deciduous Tree Species: Red Oak, White Oak, Sugar Maple, and Striped Maple

Using the Winter Twig Identification handout given during the lab, I used the graphics and information present to compare to the photos. The first photo I identified as a sugar maple based on the buds, the second I identified was a white oak based upon the blunt buds.

Watts, M. T. (1943). Winter Twig Identification. Winter Twig Identification. South Lincoln, Massachusetts.

Used to help sketch the tree anatomy.

Nix, Steve. “Twig Anatomy for Tree Identification.” ThoughtCo, ThoughtCo, 1 Apr. 2018, www.thoughtco.com/tree-identification-anatomy-of-a-twig-1343464.

Using the Mammal Tracks and Scat guide for a scale, and the content inside I have deduced the animals trafficking the area during the winter months. There is deer, clearly humans, and the possibility of rabbits. The deer tracks were pronounced and defined as well as the human footprints. The deer tracks were a clear match to the tracks presented in the tracking guide as well as the gait, leaving no other option than White Tailed Deer. The determination of the rabbit was a little harder having less defined features but the front paws do match to the tracks I found as well as the hopping style in those tracks. The smallest of the footprints were hard to identify with no distinct features besides indentation, and my educated guess was rabbit.

Levine, L., & Mitchell, M. (2014). Mammal Tracks and Scat (Life-Sized Pocket Guide). East Dummerson, vermont: Heartwood Press.

 

Week 8

03 Dec
 

Sense of Place at Home / Week 7

03 Dec

When not in Burlington for school I spend my time in the great state of New Jersey, specifically in the central part in a town named Bridgewater on Harry road. This area is mostly middle-class families that are mostly white that is sandwiched between the bad part of town, a major highway route 202/206, and the neighboring town. For starters the change living between the two, Burlington and Bridgewater, is so drastic that it could be described as almost a polar opposite. When I am home in a suburban area there is tons of nature in the forms of bushes and trees, but little areas of woods devoted just to nature itself. Being honest, my home is very similar and indistinctive from the rest of urban America. There are things that I can recognize it by, but the regular person wouldn’t be able to tell its Bridgewater, let alone New Jersey. The meaning to me thought is significant although only shared with the people that live there, Bel Air park down the street, foothill road and its hills and corners, Adamsville school on the corner, all the things that make it unique to me yet there are similar features with different names everywhere. The best way that I can describe where I live is generic for the northeast, so there is some distinction yes, but it is so hard to express the variation. The flat one story houses combined with basic architecture and shudders are the only things that give a clue to where you could be, the history of my neighbor hood is that all of the homes were constructed exactly the same in the 50s to house all of the veterans from World War Two starting families, a common occurrence for the timeframe. This history has also made it so the population of my neighborhood is all elderly or very young, thus being because the original owners are still living or they have died and their homes have been bought. This is one of the big changes that I have noticed over the past ten years, the elderly neighbors started slowly not coming outside anymore, then houses for sale, then the influx of new families. An odd thing but part of a changing and evolving community, healthy change. I have gone from feeling the youngest to becoming the age demographic and kinds of people now moving into the area once for the old, the same thing is happening when I went to college. I was going in as the youngest and then after my four years I will be the oldest in different more experienced shoes. I cannot deny where I live made me who I am and gave me the experienced that I will never forget, but I can’t just remember the good, since all my experiences and memories make me who I am. Stereotyped as a middle class white male is a correct assumption, but during 2008 and the following years, everyone in my town suffered and especially my area. Those hard years bred a sense of coming together and helping each other resulting in good relations with neighbors and friendships. A kind of feeling and respect that you can’t see on the surface, but the community can feel it through our interactions. Something that I miss, but also know what makes a home a home, the people that live there with you.

 

Week 6

03 Dec
 

Sense of Place / Week 5

09 Nov

            Starting off in the last week of September my spot was as full and abundant as much as anywhere else in Vermont. The past few weeks have given me the change to see what a single place over a variation of time does when the world around it starts to change. The leaves fall, animals leave or hibernate, and everything begins to turn gray as does the sky. The ground becomes harder and harder every week as the moisture leaves and the frost layer begins to build. The changes although stark are logical as many plats and animals prepare for bearing the harsh winters of the north east. The millennia of evolution have created a perfectly adapted biota to survive, and my observations reflect that.

            Taking a bird’s eye view of my place and stepping up from the log that I usually sit on, there is much that I don’t regularly see from the tree cover and shrubs that surround my area. The part of woods that I observe for my spot is essentially a barrier for different land uses in such a small vicinity. It separates the sports fields, a golf course, a parking lot, and retention ponds. It’s a blind for society made from nature. As well as being a practical use, there is also an environmental use. My area acts as a barrier zone for all the water draining into the ponds coming from the east. The slight slope slows the water as it soaks into the soil as well as filtering some of the impurities before entering the body of water. On the other hand, during storms it can cause the erosion of the hillside creating intense turbidity in the water.

            As everything around the area that I picked has changed, it has not. In terms of the last 80 years everything in the area surrounding my spot was most likely cleared and open. When replanted before newer development there was most likely a new forest, and this new forest was slowly destroyed only to leave a few acres surrounded by developed land for the use of man.

Trees

 

Week 4

30 Oct
 
 
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