Today January 30th, 2020 is my first visit back to my site in Centennial Woods. There are many things to note since my last visit to the woods and the first being simply the weather. Today the sky is very overcast, and the temperature is slightly above 20 degrees Fahrenheit. Winter is in full swing in Vermont with snow cover and below freezing highs. Aside from the weather one massive change I have noticed at my sight is Centennial Brook. The brook is very low with an abundant of ice over on the edge of the water. At first most everything appeared to be normal with the book until I tried to cross and noticed that the man-made bridges have been moved down stream! It appears while over winter break a high-water event sent the large wooden planks a few yards down the brook.
While on my adventure I made the point to venture off the trail and to try an observe some wildlife activity. I was very surprised to find various sets of White-Tailed Deer tracks throughout my site. I never would have thought there would be so much activity of this species in a rural area. This is one of the many advantages snow provides during the winter because before today I never thought deer would be so common in this setting. In addition, I found LOTS and LOTS of human footprints on and off the trail, which put into perspective how much activity this forest gets from humans.
Towards the end of my walk I found a very interesting set of footprints that came up from near the brook and walked across a fallen log. Unfortunately, there had been a dusting of snow since the animal had passed through and therefore, I was unable to identify what the species the tracks where made from. However, the tracks appear to be in the bounding category which means it could have been potentially a Weasel, Mink, or maybe even a Fisher.
As always, I love looking at the trees in Centennial as many of the species can give me a run for their money as some of the tree species are not common in Central Vermont where I am from. I was able to identify many species based on their bark, branching, and stems. These trees included, Sugar Maple, Red Maple, Green Ash, Red Oak, and American Elm. However, one tree I struggled to distinguish between a yellow birch, or a gray birch… In addition, a common red shrub confused me, but I believe it could potentially be Dogwood.
