Atlas Morgan’s Phenology Project

𓍢ִ໋🀦⛆⋆✧˖°. For the 2024 Burlington BioBlitz, I found myself facing challenges with “natural” vegetation in the landscape. Since I do not have a car, three of the four days I was limited to logging all of the flora and fauna I saw around campus, which was largely planted. However, I was able to go to Spectacular Nature Day on Sunday (4/28/24) at the Intervale with a friend! We spent a lot of time explornig the booths while also logging any curious plants we saw. Many of my peers were volunteering for this event, so it was cool to see them. While my area of exploration was relatively small, I still had a great time logging the things I saw and discovering new species in my campus backyard.

My experience during this BioBlitz with iNaturalist was amazing. It felt very easy to operate, and I appreciate the feature of logging past photos instead of having to take them all on the app, and I felt like the feature made it easier to take a photo then upload/identify later in the day. Sometimes I faced challenges with uploading, but it was usually due to the poor service I was in at the time of upload. Between my two locations of exploration, I encountered a total of 19 species, with 40 overall observations (see below). Also, I heavily enjoyed the competitive aspect of the challenge between lab sections, even if the competition is friendly. After attending the Main Street Landing community science event, I realized how important observations on iNaturalist truly are to biodiversity research, and it inspired me to log as much as possible for this challenge to try and help the local science community. While I was not perfect with my observations and had some corrections/comments on my images, the fun I had observing all the flora and fauna I encountered was a continuous highlight of my City Nature Challenge.

Upon looking at this year’s current global leaderboard, I am surprised. I was not sure what I was expecting, but it was not Texas to have multiple cities on the current leaderboard (04/28/24 @ 2pm). It also shocked me to see Bolivia as the top country, as I am not familiar with the large amount of natural space the country must have for its scores to be as high as they are. It did make me happy to see New York City on the leaderboard though, as it shows the true perseverance of the beautiful natural world in such an urban epicenter. Knowing all of these cities are slightly different in urban-to-natural ratio but still seeing participation from them all also put a smile on my face. While this was my first City Nature Challenge BioBlitz, I cannot wait to continue observing year after year, and becoming more aware of the natural beauty that surrounds us in the cities we inhabit.

Posted in Phenology Posts

❆↟.𖥔 ݁↟˖࿔ For today’s phenology assignment, we were instructed to go to our phenology spots and search for signs of spring as the equinox just passed. However, if anyone reading this remembers the forecast for the day I decided to go explore (03/23/2024), you will know that I was greeted with inches upon inches of snow this day. While I realized I probably would not be able to see the signs of spring I was promised, I decided to go check out my spot anyways as the snow was quite beautiful. I also convinced my two friends to brave the cold with me to see the snowy forest!

While my spot felt as if it had been transformed into a winter wonderland, the amount of new flora and fauna in the area was severely lacking. I could not find any budding branches, likely due to the heavy amounts of snow covering the branches. However, something that surprised me was the amount of bird calls I heard! I did not think we would see or hear any avian friends during the visit, and I was happily proven wrong. However, the high wind and snow amounts made me worried for the birds I was able to see, as the environment they normally thrive in as migratory birds (American Robin, possible European Starling) is not the environment we were in today. While knowing birds are resilient, I could not help but feel nervous for them in their journeys in the frigid environment.

While I was unable to spot any signs of spring apart from the increase in bird activity, I was still very glad I came to visit my clearing by the brook, especially with two close friends in tow. The day was quite fun, and felt a little fantastical at some parts due to the sheer beauty of the snow amongst the trees. I am secretly hoping for warmer weather to return to my spot as well as the Burlington area, I am not taking for granted the beautiful scenery I was able to see and the memories I made today with friends in my field of ferns in Centennial Woods. <3

Also, if you are interested in what we found and do not want to read all the wordy-goodness of the blog, I also made a vlog of my friends’ and I findings for fun!

Posted in Phenology Posts

･:*:｡☃︎𓏲ּ For this post, I am not returning to my neck of the woods, yet exploring some of the other wooded areas scattered throughout Burlington. I chose to go into the mysterious woods behind my dorm for this assignment, as they have always allured to me but I had never gone. I went at the beginning of sunset, and it was gorgeous. I expected there to not be many signs of winter wildlife, but I was presently surprised.

Immediately, I was greeted with some snowed-in tracks. I am unsure what they are from, as the snow layered on top of it makes the print no more than a pattern of indents within the snow. Shortly after that, I also believe I had encountered some possibly white-tailed deer tracks, as the smaller heart shaped snow print reminds me of the deer tracks I had seen on our Jericho tracing lab. I also believe I had encountered some Fisher tracks, due to the wider footprint width to that of a dog as well as the general shape and size, which would make sense due to the body of water within the wooded area I was in.

Further into the wooded area, I encountered a long trail of small tracks headed to the pond in the area. They are hard to identify, but I am going to assume that it is either a squirrel or another small rodent species that would inhabit the area due to the small size of the tracks.

After finding this interesting path of tracks that I could not continue to follow, I stumbled upon some more white-tailed deer tracks, as well as what look to be the tracks of a domesticated dog from the laziness of the pattern and the too-familiar paw print of a pet.

Overall, I am hugely grateful for this prompt as I was able to explore a new area of Burlington close to “home”, and see how wildlife persists even in the smallest patches of woodland across the greater region. This has inspired me to look for tracks wherever I go, as wildlife is often more places than we imagine them to be.

Posted in Phenology Posts

°❆⋆.ೃ࿔*:･ Welcome back, folks! Today I took my first visit back to Centennial Woods, and it was a journey. For starters, I do not think I have seen a place so icy yet also so muddy at the same time before. These factors made it quite difficult to get to my precise location, as the melting and refreezing became a mix of ice and mud.

One thing I was surprised about was the amount of ice and snow still on the ground, as majority of the snow has melted on campus. The snow on the ground did allow for some tracking, as I was able to see some prints in the snow! Majority of the prints were human shoe prints, but there were some animal prints in the snow as well. I believe the prints were from someone’s pet dog, but it was still cool to be able to see some prints in the snow. No matter the animal species, the tracks were mostly found near the river which I found interesting.

Now for the true phenological changes, the are was more barren than last semester. All of the trees were bare & branched for the exception of the coniferous Eastern Hemlocks. There were also fewer ferns in the area, even though there were more than I thought there would be, but they were much more scattered than at the end of the fall semester. The buckthorn that was uprooted still sits in its same place, rearing its invasive head even as a fallen part of the ecosystem. There was a decent portion of melted land in the area, where the layers of leaf litter peaked through the icy sheet. Fallen leaves, pinecones, and scattered ferns indicate a likelihood of increased wind with the colder weather, making my spot feel slightly more chaotic than it did last semester, almost changing appearance with my inner thoughts & feelings.

As I left my spot to head to my last class of the day, the winter weather trek back brought some questions along with it. Firstly, as I was struggling to walk back to my class, I wondered if the animal life in the area have the same difficulty moving on the ice as we do or if they have adaptations for the icy trails? I would assume they at least know how to move around the climate (unlike me) so it was just interesting to think about animal’s learned behaviors and adaptations with various climates. The other question I developed was about the trail ecosystem itself. Me, along with many others have been skirting around the icy trail as best as we can to avoid slipping, but I wonder if this destroys the plants and other vegetation off the trail, even under the ice and snow. I am eager to keep returning to my phenological location and documenting more changes as the weather continues to change (either warmer or colder) over the semester!

Posted in Phenology Posts

‧₊˚🌲✩ ₊˚🪶⋆⁺₊⋆ As I visit my location one last time my very first semester of college, I look upon my spot with a newfound appreciation. While the only foliage seen is the very few Sugar Maple leaves hanging onto their last breath, with majority of leaves littering the ground and the coniferous Eastern Hemlock standing tall, there is still beauty in the bare bones and bark of nature.

I took both of these photos as I entered and exited my spot for the last time, and even though the luscious blues from the early fall are now gone, seeing the darker hues of browns and greens dot the blue-gray sky is still such a beautiful sight to see.

Something I noticed when first arriving – apart from the contrast of color and foliage – was the uprooting of (assumed) invasive species. It seemed as if someone had come and uprooted one of the invasive common buckthorn trees, but in doing so they left the uprooted tree on the ferns, harshly crushing a large amount of the ferns I have come to love over the semester. This saddened me, because even if the uprooting of a species is for the best, seeing the ferns who were still growing and thriving into the winter flattened ended up flattening my soul. There was also a new fallen tree in my phenology blog, which likely fell from the high amount of strong winds we have received this semester. While I would originally be sad at the prospect of a fallen tree, through the semester i’ve learned all of the good they can do for the ecosystem; and now I just hope that whomever inhabits that fallen lumber is able to benefit from it during the long winter.

Animal Activity – which is the occasional bird passerby – has lessened significantly as the semester has gone on. However, I did see a bundle of small black & white birds on my way to my phenology spot, but not at the spot. It was incredibly muddy today, likely due to the melting ice from the sudden temperature increase, so I was not able to spot anything in the ground apart from the footprints scattered across the mud from visitors long before me. Even though the “livelihood” of Centennial is seeming to lessen as we deepen into winter, it makes me think of a quote I read the other day to appreciate the change of seasons as well as the general duality of life. The quote was from The Little Prince (2015) and reads as: “But this is the very condition of existence. To become spring, means accepting the risk of winter. To become presence, means accepting the risk of absence.” This quote struck me when I first stumbled upon it, and it deeply presented the idea of duality to me in such a breathtaking way. Knowing that to have change, is to accept the risks of this change, whether it be personally or phonologically is necessary in the ever-changing Earth we inhabit. As I close for the semester, I do not want my words to read as a goodbye to this place (as I will likely be returning next semester) but more of a “see you soon” and a “I cannot wait to see what you become in our absence”. ˗ˏˋ ♡ ˎˊ˗

Posted in Phenology Posts