Phenology Log #6

Date: Jan 29, 2020, Time: 1:00pm, Weather: Sunny but very cold (-8°C)

This semester I decided to stick with my original site right next to Centennial Woods. The last time I visited my site was before Thanksgiving Break so there have been many phenological changes since I last visited. One of the biggest phenological changes that many natural areas experience from fall to winter, besides the inclusion of snow and in this case also ice, is the loss of leaves from all deciduous trees and this is true for mine, with some remaining dead red oak leaves just barely hanging on branches. This is also true for the large fern field that was at the end of the clearing, it was just covered with snow that had turned into ice. Even with the drastic physical change, there were still some similarities from the last time I had visited, such as the birds still being prevalent through their chirps. In fact, there were quite a number of different birds that I heard during my time there.

One of the first I had noticed when I first saw my site was the abundance of non-human tracks on the snow (Fig. 1). Although, I have never done tracking of any sorts before I am mostly confident that I was able to identify some of the tracks that I had found like the cottontail rabbit (Fig. 5.) with some scat that I think is deer scat (Fig. 7). Here are the pictures and measurements that I took during my time there. I used the “Mammals Tracks and Scat: Life-Size Pocket Guide” by Lynne Levine to check the scat and tracks for each of the different trails that I found (Lynn, 2008). However, the iced-over snow made it hard to identify some tracks more than others.

Figure 1. An abundance of tracks was prevalent during my time there.
Figure 2. What used to be the nearby area full of ferns.
Figure 3. More tracks going from the start of Centennial Woods to the back end of the clearing.
Figure 4. Berries that I found on the top of nearby trees, which I believe are some sort of ash tree.
Figure 5. This were cottontail rabbit tracks that I had found near the boxelder tree. The front tracks were bigger than the back ones which means a hopping pattern. The front tracks (or the hind legs) are around 8cm long which is too short for a snowshoe rabbit.
Figure 6. These tracks I had found going into the direction of a nearby white oak tree. I believe these are deer tracks due to their size being around 10cm long and they seem to have a sort of walking and trotting pattern. It also has a large stride which means it must have been a fairly large mammal.
Figure 7. This is a picture of one of the few places I found deer scat in. I can tell it is deer scat due to its cylindrical nature and how they were all found in piles.
Figure 8. These were one of the few tracks that I was not able to identify near the deer scat, they are around 12cm long.

Another part of this lab was twig identification. I was able to find a boxelder twig that was easily identifiable due to its leaf scars around the ring of bud scale, and its spherical lateral buds around the terminal bud and bud scales (Fig. 9).

Figure 9. This is a picture of a boxelder twig that I was able to find
Figure 9. This is a diagram of a twig and its parts

In summary, my site showed to have a lot of life nearby. The massive amount of tracks show a rich amount of wildlife passing through the clearing. I understand that it is near a small suburb so there would also be a fair amount of domestic dog tracks too. But it is still nice to see that deer, rabbits, squirrels, and chipmunks (although they are hibernating now) still use this area to pass by. The next time I visit my site I will go further into the Centennial Woods but not on the trail to hopefully find some more species of wildlife Hopefully, there will be more wildlife nearby next time!

Figure 10. These were my notes for the visit. There weren’t a lot of changes from my last time thus the small number of notes.

References: Levine, L., & Mitchell, M. (2008). Mammal tracks and scat: life-size tracking guide. East Dummerston, VT: Heartwood Press.