Welcome to Oakledge Park, my phenology spot! Oakledge Park is a local park in Southern Burlington, just north of Red Rocks Park. It is easily accessible by the bike path, or there is also a bus that takes you to a station just a short walk from the park’s entrance! My specific phenology spot is Oakledge Cove, a small sandy beach in the park right past the Forever Young Treehouse. I chose this spot because of its location on Lake Champlain, the beautiful view of downtown Burlington, and it’s cool exposed rock along the shoreline!
The most common woody plants I observed were various species of pines, junipers, buckthorn, and oak trees. Specifically, I saw white oak, aspens, junipers, alder buckthorn, eastern white pines, common buckthorn, northern white cedar, and shagbark hickory. The overall landscape of the area has lots of exposed rock faces, especially along the coastline, and lots of large rocks. The beach itself is pretty sandy, with some areas with more pebbles, and before you reach the beach area of the shoreline there is a small area of grass with a picnic table and bike rack. When you venture into the tree line more, there are lots of needles on the ground making up the understory, which lay on top of the open faces of rock, sort of similar to what we saw at Rock Point. There were also the occasional small woody shrubs growing out of the rock faces which were super cool too! Overall, I didn’t really see many fall colors with the foliage of the area because many of the trees are evergreens!
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