This is the final visit to my birch tree. The leaves have fully grown and the tree is much more green. There is a huge difference compared to the first visit of this site.
The surrounding birch trees have also all grown leaves but some of the different kinds of trees have not grown trees yet. Overall there is a huge difference from the first visit.
This is a visit of my tree on April 23rd. The tree is starting to turn green as the buds have turned into leaves. My phenology spot is right on campus so traveling here is pretty easy and accessible. A short walk from my dorm and I am at this tree. It is really cool to watch the tree go through its phases, changing as the season changes.
April 23, 2023
From a quick glance it seems like my phenology spot has not changed at all. A lot of time has pasted since I first found my spot and thinking back a lot has happened in my spot. Many people walk through this spot, as it is very close to campus and it is a small spot in the woods tucked away from business of main campus. People go here to spend time alone, but also to hang out with friends and enjoy nature. Some people stop and sit on the fallen down trees and others just pass through. It doesn’t really look like it but all of the plants have gone through many changes. From green leaves to brown leaves to no leaves, to buds and now small leaves, the trees are going through changes.
In terms of landmarks, there is a small wood bench that was put in the woods. There are a few fallen trees but nothing too out of the ordinary.
This spot is a place where people go to take a break from campus. There is definitely a stoner culture in this area, and people definitely go there to unwind at the end of the day. Because this spot is so close to campus its very accessible for students, and thats the population that normally would visit this spot. I don’t know if I would consider myself a part of this spot. I have visited it a few times but I haven’t really spent large amounts of time there so I wouldn’t really consider myself part of the spot.
As I was walking around my phenology site I found a paper birch (Betula papyrifera) tree (I couldn’t find time during the day so I had to go out at night). I knew it was a paper birch because of the white papery bark.
This picture is a little blurry but you can see the cone shaped buds, which shows that this is a paper birch tree.
I went to Rocky Point and the woods around North Beach. There were mostly human foot prints but as we walked around I saw what looked like deer tracks. On our walk we did not see any animals, except someone who was walking their dog. The picture below shows some of the tracks we saw.
From what I know I believe these are deer tracks. It felt like there were two defined ridges and for the most part the tracks were in a straight line.
These are some other tracks we saw. I am not sure what the two bottom tracks are but the top ones look like rabbit tracks.
This is an up close picture of another set of tracks we saw. This one was very similar to the fox we saw in Jericho, but these tracks were hard to follow and I couldn’t get a good view of the type of stride.
I decided to go out and do my tracking a little early which was good because the snow hadn’t melted yet. Using the iNaturalist app was pretty easy, but I can’t see myself going out and doing it for fun.
Coming back to my spot this year, I’ve noticed a few big changes. For the first time everything is completely covered in snow! Last visit there was no snow at all and everything was very grey and drab. Now, the sky is still grey but at least we have snow.
I noticed little markings in the snow but most of them seemed like snow droppings from the trees, but as I walked in farther I did notice bigger markings.
A lot of these marks looks like footsteps, but some of them might be from different animals, its hard to tell.
When I was home I thought about some good natural areas around my house. This place came to my mind, it is one location that I’ve spent countless hours throughout my years growing up. Taughannock Falls state park brings people to my small town from all around the world. Its funny when you grow up so close to a destination place, it is practically in my backyard and I often overlook the beauty.
I started by walking around the rim trail, the landscape changes throughout the trail. To the right is an older growth forest filled with pines and mostly deciduous trees, there was little understory growth. This reminds me a lot of the forests in the Ricker Basin. As you continue to walk I the left opens up into a large gorge.
This gorge is mostly made up of shale and granite, and it extends all the way to Cayuga Lake and opens up into Taughannock Falls. This location is drastically different from my phenology spot, but it reminds me a little of the cliffs at Rocky Point. If you continue down the trail and journey into the gorge trail you end up at the base of the waterfall.
You can see the layers of shale and it is fascinating thinking about a glacier once carved out the stone and melted to create one of the finger lakes.
After walking around for a bit I ended at the base of the park, where the falls collects into the lake.
I love Taughannock and It reminds me of home. It’s incredible how diverse a landscape can be in such a small area. Thinking about it, I could not just choose one spot to explore, I had to walk through the whole to get a feeling of how the land changes and interacts with each other. This area unlike my phenology spot, has a lot of running water and exposed rock, it is a very different landscape.
12/8/22
Everything is a bit more grey. The ground unfortunately not covered by snow, there is surprisingly no snow in sight. It’s almost mid December and the temperature is in the mid 40s, that is way too warm for Vermont.
There are no leaves on the trees, the shrubs are bare and there are no green plants in sight. The vegetation is low, however there are a lot of decomposing leaves. I think because it has been so warm recently the ground has not froze yet, so there are more decomposer action. There are little signs of animals, I didn’t see any mammals or birds during my visit. There is definitely some human impact, there was remanence of a campfire and cans laying around.
Sit spot. As I sat in my sit spot I looked around, the warm fall air flowed around me. It felt oddly like spring, a time when all of the animals are coming back out for the season. It felt like the woods were coming back alive after a long, quiet winter. But it is not spring, it is November and it is way too warm for November. There is a small beaten path leading right up to my spot, I can tell that many people have visited it throughout the years. I think about those who were here before me and those who will follow, it is so interesting to think about the range of things that can happen in one place over time. We live such a fast pasted lifestyle, that it can be hard to sit still and do nothing, but it was so nice and grounding. I grew up going to a nature camp program where we would always find sit spots, where we would sit and enjoy being one with nature. Doing this brought me back and it was a calming way to break up my day.
Changes throughout the seasons. All of the leaves have fallen, instead of looking around and seeing green and yellow dotting the forest roof, all I see is grey. It is the beginning of stick season and it will definitely take some adjustment. Most of the low laying plants are gone, everything is just overall grey.
Alex Zoner, NR1 Phenology Project
My Phenology Spot.
Map location of Phenology spot.
In this spot there are a few sugar maples, red oak, some small grass/shrub vegetation, American beech, and honeysuckle.
