Although the snow had just been melted by a recent rainstorm, the phenological signs of winter were nevertheless prevalent at my site. Most noticeably, nearly all of the deciduous trees were fully bare, except for a few young American Beeches that were still managing to hold onto many of their leaves. This dramatically opened up the canopy and allowed me to see into the highest sections of the forest in a new way. The lack of leaves revealed three different squirrel nests each up in the cruxes of large oaks, as well as one much smaller nest about 25 feet up in a medium sized Beech tree, presumably belonging to a bird rather than a squirrel. It was too high up to see with any detail and I didn’t notice a bird fly in or out of it, so I wasn’t able to identify it. Down below, a few scattered fern patches in the understory were still green, which might signify that they’re evergreen wood ferns and so will likely stay active all through the winter.
Unfortunately, since the snow was melted I couldn’t see any animal tacks, but I was still able to notice some signs of fauna activity. Throughout the whole time I was there I could hear multiple chickadees singing somewhere near by up in the canopy. I also saw a small songbird fly over the stream when I first walked up, I was able to get a good look at it and I’m pretty sure it was a tufted titmouse due to the shape of its head. Deeper into the forest there were a few piles of white-tailed deer scat in a flat spot under a large Eastern White Pine. The area was trampled down and it seemed like they might have been using it as a sleeping spot to get cover from the snow. There was also a standing dead deciduous tree nearby that was covered in Pileated Woodpecker holes. I don’t remember noticing them when I was there previously and so they may have happened recently, although the wood chips at the bottom of the tree didn’t look extremely fresh. As I was walking down the path on my way out, I also caught a glimpse of a large bird flying overhead that I would guess was a cooper’s hawk, but I didn’t see it well enough to make a confident identification.
