December 8th, 2024
Welcome to the last post of 2024! Yesterday was the first true snow day of the season, and Marina and I decided to visit our spots in the wintery weather. For the last post, I decided to change up the formatting!
The first thing that I noticed regarding phenology is that all of the overstory trees almost completely lacked leaves-- only a few brown, shriveled basswood leaves remained. 
As for the understory, only two types of plants had leaves-- one was what I presumed to be from the tribe Astereae based on my past iNaturalist uploads. 
The other plant left with leaves is most likely buckthorn. Its leaves were still green!
The only fruit that I saw remaining was that of Asiatic bittersweet. In order to check the decomposition of the leaf litter, I had to scrape aside some snow. I still had a bit of a hard time seeing, but it looked to me like there were very small bits of leaf now, along with some still whole ones. 
This indicated to me that this layer is starting to decompose. However, I didn't see much sign of any decomposers. As for signs of animals, I could still hear the birds chirping in the trees, though I didn't see any. I did see some tracks in the snow, but apart from the human ones I couldn't quite identify what they were because it had snowed since they were made. My best guess is rabbit, squirrel, or chipmunk. The latter would make sense because I've seen plenty of chipmunks in the area on past visits.
Animal activity at Salmon Hole has decreased based on the lack of chipmunk spottings. That is the only species that I saw regularly before.I've really enjoyed getting to explore Salmon Hole this semester! My favorite aspect of it is its serenity; even though it's near a lot of busy places, it's quiet and peaceful, and the water is calming to look at. I also love the sound of the water as it flows. Salmon Hole is such a unique place and it makes me feel more connected to nature when I spend time there. Thank you Salmon Hole!
