January 18, 1:20pm
About a week ago, I revisited my phenology spot. The landscape was transformed by snow that had fallen over the last few days. The blanket of white made everything feel quieter except the creaking of trees in the wind and the crunch of hardened snow underfoot. Upon first glance, bare branches and patches of dead grasses appeared to be the only things to observe. The remaining color was from the towering eastern white pines, patches of moss and lichen, or a few shrunken red berries remaining on the barberry. Centennial Brook was largely frozen over since the weather was in the 20s. Sections of the brook had breaks in the ice revealing a steady flow of water underneath.
Aside from one mystery bird calling, I saw no wildlife near my spot. However, there were tracks surrounding the creek as well as left on the surface of the frozen creek. I noticed that the frozen river was used by creatures as a sort of pathway. Some of these were clearly fellow hikers and their dogs, but I tried to identify a few other tracks that seemed to be from wild animals. I am very new to identifying tracks, but below are some guesses I have for tracks I found in my phenology area.
