I woke up this morning to take a walk to the redstone quarry before I head home for the semester. I usually visit the quarry in the afternoon so heading over at 8am was a new experience. The birds were singing their songs and the light breeze blew the leaves on the trees. Since my last visit, all of the trees have bloomed and the landscape is a beautiful sea of green. Additionally, some of the flowering plants like the apple tree have lost their flowers.

At the redstone quarry nature and culture are intertwined because the remaining rock is a result of human impact as we mined the redstone to build many buildings scattered throughout town. Nature has grown around the terraces that were dug into. While I do have a very strong connection to the redstone quarry, I do not consider myself a part of the landscape. I am a visitor to this beautiful nature filled area and I don’t think of myself as something that belongs there, just something that has the ability to appreciate it.

Thank you for everything, Redstone Quarry! See you next fall 🙂

I kicked off the City Nature Challenge by attending the SPECTACULAR Nature Day on Saturday down at the Intervale where we learned about edible invasive species such as garlic mustards and Japanese Knotweed and recipes to use them in (they were delicious). We then went into the forest and planted ferns and used the majority of our time working with the iNaturalist app and the Wildways volunteers to identify plant and animal species.

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I was most excited to catch pictures of the animal species because they are always moving and it is hard to get a good enough picture to be able to identify them. Using the iNaturalist app was much easier than I had expected it to be, the only problem I ran into was losing cell service so suggestions could not be pulled up.

I couldn’t let the bioblitz go on without making a trip down to the Redstone Quarry though, so I visited on Sunday and was already excited about the knowledge I had accumulated from one day using iNaturalist. The first thing I saw when I entered the the quarry was that the pathway was lined with garlic mustards, so I did a quick iNaturalist identification to be sure and then took a bite. I was pleased to taste the same garlicky flavor from yesterday and began munching on it throughout my adventure. I was happy to see lots of flowers throughout the quarry and the landscape reminded me of when I first saw it in September last semester.

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I have loved looking through iNaturalist at what other people in NR002 are identifying and where they are visiting to make these identifications, but I haven’t spent too much time looking at other cities around the world. When I first visited the explore section of the website, I was blown away at the animal species that had been recently posted. Looking more into that specific observer, I figured out that they are identifying from Northern Spain and they have posted an amazing assortment of plant and animal species in the past couple days. These species include Giraffes, Mongooses, Camels, Calla Lilies, Bottlebrushes, and Aloe. It is surprising how different the experience of someone living in Northern Spain has compared to me living in New England just based off the species that they see in their daily lives.

All images: McDougall A. (May 1-2, 2021)

After about two months, I visited the Redstone Quarry again and was surprised at how much color had returned to the area. Last time I was there the ground was covered in snow and there was nothing but bare trees.

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The signs of budding and flowering were vibrant and brightened up the landscape significantly. Due to the lack of snow or mud, I was not able to see any animal tracks, however I was able to sit quietly on the rocks and listen to the different bird songs and watch the small bugs fly around overhead. I am interested in learning how to identify birds based off their song so I can better understand the interactions happening around me.

This species interaction chart demonstrates how all of the species I studied interacted with each other. The Norway Maple and Juniper tree are competing for sunlight and water, and they are on the same trophic level. There is a commensalism relationship between these two trees and the two bird species (that I was unable to identify) because these birds create their nests in the trees and live off of the tree’s protection. The two bird species are competing for these trees as their habitat as well as the prey that they will eat. I studied both worms in the dirt and ants crawling across the rocks, both of which most birds prey on.

I took a twig off of the blooming Norway Maple and brought it back to my dorm room to study for 10 days and see if it’s buds continue to blossom, and will report the progress here.

See you soon, Redstone Quarry!

I set out on my adventure to search for signs of early March today and had a great time doing so! I walked down to the waterfront with perfect timing to see the sunset over the water and behind the beautiful mountains. On my way down I was focused on looking at the buds forming on all of the trees. A few trees appeared that I was unable to identify, but they had great buds forming and had a spectacular reddish color to the branches.

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As I continued my journey down I studied the birds in the sky, as flocks of crows flew overhead. I was hoping to see more variants of birds, but I may have to wait for the temps to warm up more for them to migrate back.

Once I got down to the waterfront I was pleasantly surprised that I was able to walk on a portion of the lake because it was frozen over. It froze in a very interesting pattern that resulted in triangular and rhombus shapes of thicker white ice and then cracks of very thin and clear ice. You were able to see the lake floor through the thinner sections of ice which was super interesting to see. The way the ice froze on the shore shows the pattern of the waves.

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I kept my eye out the whole excursion for animal tracks to see, but they were difficult to find due to the lack of snow and mud. I was only able to see tracks of a dog on the shoreline.

I ended my excursion watching the beautiful sunset on one of the picnic benches. Overall, I had a great time venturing into downtown Burlington and the waterfront, and it was fun to look at my surroundings with a perspective focused on ecology.

As the week was coming to a close and I still had to visit my phenology spot, Redstone Quarry, I was dreading having to leave my cozy bed to go walk two miles in the cold. But as I started my journey I realized that the walk to the quarry and visiting it on my own was such a valuable time to me and I do have a strong connection to this place that I didn’t realize I had. Obviously as two months have passed, there are lots of changes to the spot starting with the snow covering. I had never seen the quarry with close to a foot of snow covering it, luckily there was a path through the snow already established.

There was very little green left in the landscape which was a big change from the scene I remember from fall, the only tree that appeared to keep a little bit of color was the cedar.

It was fun to spend most of my time looking for animal tracks in the snow because that was something I hadn’t gotten a chance to do in the fall. I found a variety of tracks and using my Mammal Tracks and Scat Pocket Guide I tried to identify them but struggled to come to a conclusion. I’m excited to start learning more about how to identify tracks in class and lab!

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McDougall. A, October 11, 2020. Redstone Quarry.

McDougall. A, October 11, 2020. Moss.

McDougall. A, October 11, 2020. Tall Grasses.

McDougall. A, October 11, 2020. Lichen.

McDougall. A, October 25, 2020. Birds Eye View.

McDougall. A, November 18, 2020. Event Map.

McDougall. A, November 18, 2020. Redstone Quarry Landscape.

McDougall. A, November 18, 2020. Redstone Quarry.

McDougall. A, November 18, 2020. Barren Trees.

McDougall. A, November 18, 2020. Redstone Quarry

McDougall. A, November 27, 2020. Bamboo.

McDougall. A, November 27, 2020. Tree with Foilage.

McDougall. A, November 27, 2020. Forest Park Landscape.

McDougall. A, November 27, 2020. Trifoliate Orange.

McDougall. A, November 27, 2020. Bracket Fungus.

Redstone Quarry consists of a rock called Munkton Quartzite but is more commonly known as Redstone. The rock was formed in the Cambrian period. The quarry is the location responsible for providing the rocks for multiple historical buildings including College Street Congregational Church, which was made from the yellowish sandstone, and Redstone Hall on the UVM campus. Redstone hall was originally the estate of the Buell family who was rich from the lumber industry in Burlington. In the 1900’s the Buell family sold their estate to UVM and since then it has been used as a residence hall for students. The Redstone Quarry is also currently owned by UVM but open to the public.

Lathrop, W. (2018, December 18). Finding Burlington’s Past in Redstone Quarry. Retrieved December 03, 2020, from https://enjoyburlington.com/redstone-quarry/

After coming home to Takoma Park, Maryland for the break I had to find a new phenology place to blog about. Luckily, there is a small and beautiful deciduous forest across the street from my house called Forest Park.

Spanning about 5 acres, this woodland is owned by the 24 home owners that surround the area. The area is very ecologically diverse and has a great deal of species. Some of the tree species I noticed include Tulip Poplar, Beech, Elm, White Oak, Ash, Bamboo, Trifoliate Orange, and Holly. My family has recently got into learning about mushrooms and harvesting the correct types for eating so it was interesting to go on a walk with them and study a natural occurrence that we hadn’t learned about in class. There were a lot more species of trees and other plants in Forest Park than there was at the Redstone Quarry. Not all of the leaves had fallen from every tree which was a refreshing view from all of the bare trees at the quarry. The bamboo that grows at the front of the forest is interesting to study because it is an invasive plant and you can see it slowly taking over the area as I’ve watched it grow as I grew up. The Trifoliate Orange tree is the only citrus plant that can survive in Maryland and it was cool to see it in my front yard and appreciate its resilience to our climate. I have always had a connection to Forest Park because I grew up playing in it, but it was very interesting to take a step back and look at the forest through a new lens of ecology and study the pieces, processes, and patterns.

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I wasn’t able to visit the quarry due to being put into quarantine until this week, so it has been a while since I had seen Redstone Quarry. There were a ton of changes that I was suspecting to occur but not as soon as they did. The only trees with any sort of green foliage/needles were the cedar trees. There was not a lot for me to study while I was there but there were birds flying above my head and I tried my best to spot a nest but was unsuccessful. The changes in the landscape allowed me to see more of the houses and lake that are in the view from the top of the rocks. As my last visit to the quarry for a few months it was beautiful to watch the sunset as there were snow flurries in the air. Til next semester Redstone Quarry!

On my visit to the quarry today, I sat on-top of the rocks as the sun was setting and watched the beautiful rays of sun shine through the Cedar branches as it descended into the horizon. As I studied the surrounding flora and fauna I recognized that all the leaves of the maple trees had fallen leaving the trees barren, and I noticed a birds nest in the remaining cedar trees, as they appeared to provide the most protection for a nest as all the deciduous trees remain bare. The chirping of the birds provided a beautiful soundtrack as I admired my surroundings.