Hi, welcome to my phenology blog! Today I took a little trip out to my favorite spot in Centennial Woods to observe the phenology in the height of leaf peeping season.

To get to this specific spot, I would recommend putting these coordinates into google maps. However, if this is not an option, you can follow these (very loose) directions:

Walk into Centennial Woods, and once you get to the starting point of the self-guided lab we did way back in August, go the opposite direction that you did for that lab. Keep walking in that direction, following the path uphill. You will reach a point where there is a random little hill in the middle of the woods. Climb up to the top of the hill. Hooray! You made it!

I chose this spot because I appreciate how far back in the woods it is and how nice the hike to get to it is. Something about the perfect little hill placed so strangely in the middle of the woods just speaks to me.

^ The pin I dropped on the location

Once you get to the top of the hill, take a look above you into the overstory.

You will notice that the overstory is composed primarily of Maples, which I think to be Norway and Striped. There is also a tall Eastern White Pine at the center of the crest of the hill. It is a bit hard to get a good look at the leaves in the overstory just by looking up, so you may also want to take a gander at the leaf litter below you. In the leaf litter, you will see the needles and pinecones dropped by the Eastern White Pine, and the colorful fallen Maple leaves. Curiously, all of the foliage in the overstory remains green despite how late into the season it is.

While looking at the leaf litter, your eyes may wander over to the plants comprising the ground cover.

The groundcover plants on the hill are primarily ferns and this bright green leafy plant. There are also a lot of young, skinny tree saplings growing on the hill. Contrarily, the ground is also scattered with sticks and wood pieces from dead and dying trees.

I did not observe any animal species on top of the hill, but there were a few small birds flying around overhead. This spot is considerably close to residential areas, so perhaps this factors in to the lack of animals.

Regardless, these observations are always subject to change. I am looking forward to keeping everyone updated on the phenological changes at this very special spot in Centennial Woods!

Until next time,

Ava 🙂

^ The prettiest leaf from my visit