This past Sunday (February 23rd 2025 A.D.), instead of traveling to my normal phenology spot down the UVM bike path, I journeyed over to Lone Rock Point with Elsa Tullar and explored the trails and beach there! Although initially we got lost and couldn’t find parking, we eventually found a spot near Rock Point Road and set out towards the Parade Ground Trail from there. Immediately after we got onto the trail, there were so many different sets of tracks in the snow that I felt somewhat overwhelming. Every way we turned there was something new to look at, and we must have spent at least 30 minutes on less than 400 meters of the trail. There were small and large prints, diagonal and bounding tracks, bird wing impressions, signs of small moles/voles/mouses burrowing down under the surface of the snow, and a variety of other indications of animal activity. There were also many robins flying through the overstay above us, and at one point maybe 20-30 of them all settled into a bush next to us. We also were lucky enough to see a Red-Bellied Woodpecker hacking away at a tree off to the side of the trail, and used MerlinID to identify them (I’m unsure of their gender).
After exploring the trail for a while, we cut down through the woods and towards North Beach. Once there, we walked out onto the frozen shoreline of Lake Champlain and got to slide across the ice while looking out towards the Adirondacks. At first the ice was cloudy/snowy, but at a certain distance from the beach a line separated that section of the ice from the rest of it which was much clearer and extended outwards towards the center of the lake. Once we passed that point, we were able to see all the way down to the sandy bottom of the lake. There was also one spot where a cluster of air bubbles had become frozen within the ice, and although I’m not sure what caused that to occur it was one of the coolest natural phenomenons that I have ever seen.
Once we had thoroughly explored the beach, we walked back up through the woods and walked along the path to the tip of Lone Rock Point. From there we could see almost the entirety of the lake, and from our vantage point we could see that past about 200 meters out from the shoreline the ice became choppy, cracked, and pieces were shoved one on top of another. The rocks down by the bottom of the point were also encrusted in ice, and massive icicles hung down from their sides. While we were there, we also got to see what appeared to be several Common Goldeneye ducks floating in the water, and occasionally they would dive below the surface perhaps looking for food.
While walking along the trails, I didn’t actually immediately upload my observations into iNaturalist. I couldn’t figure out how to join the NR1020: Wildlife Signs in Burlington 2/15/2025-2/24/2025 Folder prior to our exploration of Lone Rock Point, so instead I just took pictures regularly using my phone. I then uploaded them to iNaturalist the day after (the day that I am writing this blog entry), and with the help of Google and my Mammal Tracks and Scat: Life Size Tracking Guide book attempted to ID our findings. This was the primary was in which I attempted to ID the tracks and animals that I observed, and in addition to that Elsa and I bounced ideas off one another and tried to aid each other in our identifications. I would also like to note here that I am not 100% certain about 90% of my ID’s, as I am still fairly new to tracking and am not very confident in my identification abilities. However, I did my best to use my resources to help me, and narrowed down my identifications primarily using my pocket guide, after which I double checked using google image search results.
In conclusion, I had a wonderful time attempting to ID tracks at Lone Rock Point this past weekend, and I’m so grateful to have been able to get out and enjoy the snowy weather!!!