This was the first time I had gone to Centennial for a very clear objective — find one of four specific trees at my phenology spot. It seemed simple enough. But when I tell you my site had not one tree that I needed to document, I’m not exaggerating. At least there were none that I could say for certain.
The area looked lovely, still covered in snow, but featuring running water!
So, though unable to find a red maple, paper birch, American beech, OR a red oak on my side of the creek, I did spot a lookalike!
It was my beloved Yellow Birch. I recognized it by the flaky bark and texture. I also checked that it’s twig buds match yellow birch buds, and I am pretty sure they do!
Luckily for me, I was travelling with friends, and after weaving through the majority of Centennial, I spotted a paper birch off the path!
I saw that someone had carved initials into the tree, which made me very upset for the poor guy. I knew that this was not one of the paper Birch’s lookalikes, because the bark was curling off of it in much larger pieces, and it was much lighter in color.
And here’s the iNaturalist post I made to record my Paper Birch Data.
All of the snow definitely made the woods hard to traverse, but all in all it was lovely to venture through the latest winter wonderland that Centennial becomes after snowfalls. I have high hopes for being able to catch another snowfall here after I come back from Spring Break!
Until next time!
Alma