A UVM blog Red Rocks Phenology-Harrop

I’m going a little early for the end of the bioblitz, but I know I won’t be able to participate anymore cuz I sorta hurt myself. I went out around campus and into centennial to find species. Once I saw people were well over 100 though I sorta gave up. (I made a deal with Luke in Meghans group to go with them)

I really like INaturalist. More exactly I like seek the app extension of it for kids. It’s easier to identify in that app and then it can auto send your data to INaturalist. So, I usually use that, and it works nice collecting badges in there. In this I encountered like 20 species but it didn’t log some of them correctly which annoyed me a bunch. I think its interesting how many species are coming from cities that are massive. I guess to a degree it makes sense that a area with thick urban density would have more surface area. Especially when a lot of the sightings are bird species.

My site has changed a lot over the past semester. I can finally be seeing a bunch of buds forming. A nice thing about the place is that its mostly cedar and pines meaning most leaves were already there. This however means that we are getting new seasonal plants. This time there was also more birds and other animals that I noticed since last being there.

There has no been human changes or storm caused changes. But there has been a lot of personal landmarks I found. First is the big rock coming out of the ground that signals the enterance of the trail to my spot. This is really memorable to me as the first time going it seemed so mysterious. This landmark has been fun to pass by a lot. And to me a even more memorable landmark is the rock that is almost a perfect bench. Whenever I come to my phenology spot I always take a lot of time just sitting there and looking out. It’s legit a perfect place to sit.

Nature has definitely been tied with culture here at Red Rocks. This place has a bunch of unique spots that people come to. I remember the first time there seeing a bunch of people swimming down below. And I have seen many people walking dogs on the trail. People use this unique place as a relaxation spot and plus with all the signs about species there I can definitely see classes going there.

I personally see myself as part of my place, whenever I come back the trees seem to almost welcome me back with their shapes so I would definitely say yes.

Well the last of the tree post. I really haven’t liked these but got to get those grades. Made the trudge back to Red Rocks and found the tree again. The buds now are just more red in general, there’s no more change in them themselves.

Well its officially mud season and Red Rocks is sure experiencing it. As usual I trekked over there. I couldn’t find the exact Red Maple again so I just found another nearby. This one is significantly less in bloom than the one I first found. Which makes me believe the first one I found was not doing things in phenological time correctly. Expecially when this one is more in line with others around it. Maybe it could be different aspects of weather causing slightly different blooming times in the same species.

This phenology was a bit tough to do since I have been feeling sick this week. (I know it sucks again) But I stuck it up, took some medicine, and made my way to Red Rocks. I was wondering at first where I would find the trees for this event because most of the trees there are cedar due to it being a cliff bluff. However I was plesantly surprised to find a Red Maple near the cliffside.

I was able to tell it was a Red Maple and not Sugar/Norway Maple because of the soft shape of the buds and the red hue of them. Additionally, it was easy to tell the type of tree due to the type of bark. Additionally the tree is budding which is exciting!

For this phenology/inaturalist event. I went to Centennial twice over the event. Unfortunately, a lot of the snow had melted at this point, leading to not many tracks.
On the first trip on Tuesday, I went alone and down to the stream. Noting nothing there at all, I went back up and crossed the stream into another part. This area was new to me, and here is where I actually heard some species. They were crows and chickadees. (Thankfully, I know what those species are). I sadly didn’t see the birds physically, just the signs of them. Things like nest and calls. Eventually, I headed back.

On Wednesday, I returned Centennial with 2 of my friends. Little did I know that it was even worse conditions than before. The ice on the trail now had mud. And like a fool, I didn’t have my hiking boots. So guess who took a tumble down the hill…. 

Into a tree…. After falling into a mudpile. 

So uh yeah, that was nature 1, me 0 type moment. That being said. We actually had some stuff today. First off, we heard more birds. So that’s great. We sat there for an hour and only heard birds like 5 times. Therefore, that’s a win. At the end, we actually saw some tracks of deer and some canine. For the canine, we weren’t sure if it was wolf, fox, or just a big dog. The deer tracks were followed by the canine, though, so it leads me to believe it was a wolf. Plus, the tracks were massive. 

Overall, it was a disappointing experience. It just happened to go during the worst week possible with all the snow melted. I also didn’t have the ability to go later during the week since its really busy. 

New Year, Same Spot!

Hello! And welcome to season 2 of phenology. My spot is Red Rocks and specifically on the cliffsides. The animal life on the cliff itself is skim but there is way more a little back on the trail. Today I spend more time at the park and got to walk around parts that I had never seen before. It gave me a new appreciation for the area!

Besides all the snow that fell there wasn’t much change. This is because most of the trees are cedar and pine and keep their leafs. The only other changes I could think of would be more ice.

The foliage has changed about 50 percent, since most of the trees here were cedar and pine, they have all stayed. Especially on the ridge part of the spot. Further back are more oaks, which still probably have 10 leaves hanging up, but our pines and especially the cedars are still fully in bloom. The leaf litter has mostly stayed the same. Makes sense since there were not many falling trees directly on where I am just sort of in the preliminary/edge areas. I will say however it is surprisingly warm on this spot for a 17 degree day. I was able to take my jacket off because it was basked in warmth. There aren’t any physical presence of animals. No scat or tracks, but there is a small nest of some species. I found it by following the vocalization of the bird species. Every once and a while I do hear a sound of leaves being stepped on, but these likely are human. Animal activity has decreased, but since there was not much to begin with, I think it’s important to note that this area was already mostly plants due to the habitat. I also found a squirrel further from the edge scavenging. Two of them actually. Which makes sense, it’s the end of their season. A weasel was also seen with a winter coat on. They have already adapted, which ironically makes them stand out more. But they are gorgeous. I can’t tell if he is hunting or scavenging since it’s not fully winter yet. 

The wind also isn’t that bad here. Which is a surprise, because last time it was. There is a slight breeze, which is expected for a lake. Other than that, everything is still. 

The aspects of my red rocks phenology spot I enjoy the most are the view and the awayness. While I am here, the view is outstanding. It’s a giant view off the lake, which just can’t be beat. Likewise, it’s an hour away from campus, so I enjoy that excursion aspect. Its really helpfully for my mind to just get away for a bit on the regular. Today actually had the most people I saw, which was people walking dogs mainly. 

Coming back here next semester will be hard, considering how part of the trail was already frozen over. The part where there was a small waterfall was already ice and was the main path down. Next time I come, I will have to have snow pants. 

Good Morning Readers!

Here is some tunes for reading

https://music.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL2ZlXaFmIBuD2jiTcxClWzbY8KH-Jf9Vo

Today we are looking at another region for today. In my home of Attleboro, MA. Specifically at Anthony Lawrence Wildlife Preserve. The Sevenmile River passes directly through here leading to two distinct areas of the land. The forest stand and the marsh. These are split up by the river. Most of my obseservations are made on the forested side but I did a small trek to the marsh.

I’ve been here over the summer and wanted to showcase the season changes in a photo sphere.

Before we continue on I want to showcase the plants and animals here. For plants there was white oak, Northern Red Oak (by far the most common species the whole ground was covered in their leaves), Paper Birch (although all were fallen trees), Unknown Bracket fungi, Eastern White pines (all in the understory), Flat-Branched Tree-club Moss (a small pine species and are so adorable), American Beech, Common Buckthorn, Round Leave Greenbrier, Bayberry, unknown grass (a true sedge which is on the edge of the marsh), Cattails (in the marsh). For animals there was, squirrel, robins, bluejays, white-tailed deer, wild turkeys, and an aligator (I’ll explain in a bit). Overall these were amazing species I felt super connected to the land. Now I want to showcase my photos I took!

So you are probably wondering why I saw an Aligator huh? Well while I was here I decided to Geocache. If you don’t know what that is, its basically little puzzles hidden around areas such as a tube in a fake electrical socket. Here I did two of them. The first was called gone fishin’. The objective was to find this hidden fishing rod and pull up a rock. After a bit of bushwacking and gps shenanigans I found the pole attached to the bck of a tree off the trail.

From here, I made my way back to the river and began searching. After about 30 minutes and meeting some people on the trail I gave up with no nibbles at all. Then I began to head to another cache. Here I was to find a hidden aligator in a tree. He was on another trail and oh my god it was the most gorgeous area ever. After crossing under some branches I was greeted by a clearing with birds singing everywhere. I stood in the area and heard a russel to the right. I look and see a deer scampering away. I go walk over to where the deer was and then make my way further out. How im in a giant tree, and I bushwack my way out to the other side of the river. On the other side of the river is a deer hiding from me. Realizing I went to far for the gator I head back to the clearing. Once in the clearing I immediatly see the Aligator. He was sitting on a tree I walked right past when following the first deer. Inside of his stomach was my prize!

This trip home was amazing. I had so much fun here exploring the woods and spending time here. I had a major adventure. However I still have some questions for the land. While walking I noticed many signs of old growth but also many human cut logs. I wonder what the use of the land was? This is a completely urban wild basically in the back of some neighborhood. I know some other areas near me have weird things. For example, Oak Knoll has a hotel in the marsh. I wonder what is in this preserve.

After sitting for 15 minutes I felt the wind mainly. The past few weeks have been super windy so it was not very surprising to find that at the cliff top it was very windy. Since the elevation is around 100ft, and it looks out on open water this elevates the wind speed. But it was very enjoyable. The few trees with leaves on them still brushed in the wind which was very enjoyable. This time on my visit no one stopped by which was very nice. Even though I was still very close to the area (well within an hour) I felt pretty much alone in my spot. Some changes I noticed during this time were, the coldness in the air. But perhaps this was just from the wind. There was also less dead leaves on the ground but I belive that was also a product from the wind. The trees also had less leaves on them. Most of the cedars still had leaves on them which makes sense because they are evergreens. However the other plants had already begun to shed. I didn’t see any other biotic factors today. Many of the fauna are probably preparing for winter.