I went back to check in my selected paper birch in Centennial Woods. All the snow is gone so the landscape looked a bit different which made it harder for me to find my tree. Luckily I was able to find it but I have almost nothing to report. The buds haven’t changed noticeably but the surrounding area has. The birds are back so the woods is full of their songs. I had time to sit down near my tree and eat lunch. It was so peaceful; I highly recommend it.
During spring break, I went to Orlando for a robotic competition at UCF. At the center of the UCF campus is a cypress swamp that has been preserved. Before the school was built this swamp took over the entire landscape. Now the swamp has been reduced to a mere fraction of its historical size. The dominant species in this natural area is Bald Cypress. I was also able to identify some red maples and a magnolia tree with the help of the app Picture This. Since it is “winter” in Florida most of the cypress trees had dropped their leaves hence the name bald cypress. The magnolia had buds emerging which means there will be some beautiful flowers soon. The red maple that I found was still quite young so some of its leaves were less defined as others. Unfortunately, I did not see any birds that I was able to identify but I did get to make a squirrel friend.
Today I went out to centennial Woods in search of a paper birch. Of course, it didn’t take me long because they are abundant and easy to spot. I knew this tree was in fact a paper birch because of its distinct bark. Unlike yellow birch, paper birch has pink bark under the peeling bark. It was hard to see the buds on the tree because they were up in the branches, but I could still tell they had grown in.
