I was very excited to return to my phenology site to see the beautiful landscape covered in a layer of snow. During my trek through my site, I was able to document a variety of animal tracks, but unfortunately many were too filled in with snow for me to identify them. Below are some photographs of some interesting tracks I found.
The majority of the trees in my spot are conifers, specifically White Pines, and Eastern Hemlocks. The deciduous trees I was able to identify from their buds were Box Elder and American Beech.
Here’s a sketch of the Norway Maple twig with labeled parts.
The phenological changes I’ve seen have been drastic from the harsh winter. There are significantly more old branches on the ground since there are a few dead Eastern Hemlocks that are breaking apart in the wind. The living Eastern Hemlocks and White Pines still have their needles while the rest of the deciduous are bare with only a few brown leaves hanging. There are still a few fungi growing on the rotting logs. The small amount of water in the stream has frozen over but will lively unthaw in the next coming days.