This was my first visit of the new semester to my wonderful phenology site. I had been missing it while I was at home and it welcomed me back with open arms when I returned today. It does not look very different from the last time I saw it, in December. Actually, there is less snow now than there was back then. However, there is much more animal activity now! I was able to find a plethora of small animal tracks, bounding and galloping along:
I found some domestic dog and squirrel tracks. Though the domestic dog likely doesn’t have any issues with surviving the winter, the squirrel surely does. Due to the fact that they do not hibernate, they have to store up sufficient food to push themselves through the winter. As I was at my site, I couldn’t find anything besides buds and cones that they could potentially eat. I wasn’t able to find any scat or other signs of wildlife- all they left was footprints.
I also found this utterly unidentifiable “track,” I was only able to find two of them and they were massive- bigger than my own foot. They sure look a lot like bear tracks, as you can see below, but by using common sense, I can almost definitely say that something else made those marks- maybe they’re not tracks at all, but instead human-made or the remnants of an animal activity.
There are very few deciduous trees in my site, as it is a pine stand. However, I was able to find this, what I think is a Black Cherry, with gorgeous bright red, acute-tipped buds, and alternate branching:
And my rendition of it:
I think the theme of endurance belonging to January is fitting. I don’t know how these little critters do it every year. In just the time I was at my site, my fingers were halfway frozen. There was a big ring surrounding each pine that was free of snow and seemingly perfect for wildlife to take shelter in. I also found it interesting that there was some moss still alive, poking through the bright snow:
All in all, I cannot wait to come back to the Pines for my next site visit and see what they have in store for me. Until next time!
