Hello!
I want to apologize for how late these blogs are coming. During January and February I got really sick and was dealing with several health issues including COVID and issues with my heart and blood iron, as well as mental issues that I am working through professionally now. I did go out into Centennial Woods and observe it/take photos during these months, but I never posted the actual blogs, which I will be doing throughout the next week. I understand if this is not accepted but I thought it would be helpful to submit either way. I would have reached out about this sooner but I actually do not know who grades these. If you see this you can email me at kaia.hansen@uvm.edu and we can talk about grading if you would like!
I’m sorry again, thank you for your understanding.
My new spot is still in centennial but a different spot. This is a very rough map of my location. I enter the Centennial Woods through the East Avenue entrance and walk through the woods until I reach the spot in where the trail branches off in multiple directions. I go straight the whole way through, and when you pass the bridge and get to the next clear spot, go towards the river and keep following it to the left until theres a little fork in the river to a smaller stream. There’s a little piece of the stream that has a large rock near it and that is where I sit to record the phenology posts.
My phenology spot was freshly covered in snow, making it difficult to spot wildlife at the spot at the time, but I did see footprints around my spot on the walk in the more densely packed woods.
It looks at though there were multiple animals running around this area. There are very clear tracks in the snow, though I am having trouble identifying them. The small, defined tracks seem to have come from the tree, since there are no tracks past the tree. They look the most similar to gray squirrel tracks, which also makes sense with their size.
The other tracks are more difficult to identify. They seem to have come from the tree as well, but they’re sunken into the snow. I can’t identify them because of how distorted they are but it must be a tree-dweller or just an animal that can climb trees.
I also found a hole in the snow. I’m not sure what it’s from. It’s possible that it is a hole into the subnivean zone or just a strange area of snowmelt, but it seems to have leaves and dirt visible inside of it, which might indicate an animal living there.
