While I was home for spring break, I decided to document the phenology of my favorite state park, Moraine. Moraine State Park is located in Western PA, north of Pittsburgh. I walked my dog on a horse path in the woods, near Lake Arthur. This trail went along some grasses and then looped back into the woods. On this day, it was sunny and around 45 degrees. There were some small areas of melting snow from the previous days, but nothing compared to the snow in Vermont. I loved looking at the different trees and watching out for birds as I walked.
The ground was quite muddy from the snow that melted from the previous days and the horses tearing up the trails. Some trees were just beginning to bud, but some surprisingly still had dead leaves hanging on them. This year PA barely had any snowfall, which might explain why some trees didn’t lose their leaves as quickly. I identified a red oak tree that still had some dried-up leaves. Many of the trees seemed older, with some snags in the area, leading me to believe this is an older forest.
Looking out for birds lead me to notice some things I usually overlook. I recorded 3 very large birds flying overhead of the lake. I couldn’t tell if these birds were Osprey or Eagles considering how high above us they were. Both of these birds live at Moraine, so either is possible. I also found a bird’s nest buried in a tree in the grasslands by the trail. I thought this nest was interesting because it had what looked to be white feathers stuffed into the nest. I couldn’t find the bird that this nest belonged to, but I snapped a photo of the nest.
