Animal Life at Centennial Woods

 

Coming back from winter break, I wanted to change my spot to some place different from the spot I had down by the waterfront. I ended up choosing a spot near the stream in centennial woods, which had a more diverse range of animal life than down on the shoreline. To get to my spot, you enter centennial woods from campus and follow the trail until you get to a small bridge that goes over the stream.

Tracks:

    

When I began looking around, I was surprised to see so much animal life, despite the frigid temperatures that we’d been having. I found several different tracks that I believe to be deer tracks due to the length of the stride and the oval shape of the tracks. Most of the tracks had been covered with a thin layer of snow so it was hard to see the actual imprint and use that to determine the type of animal. I also found some fresh dog prints, most likely from someone taking their dog for a hike. Most of the tracks that I found were diagonal tracks from both the deer and dogs, however I found some very interesting tracks that looked like that of a galloper. Based on the size of the tracks and the style of the jumps, it seems to be a snowshoe hare.

Galloper Tracks:

Besides the prominant Eastern White Pines that surround the area, there are a lot of native deciduous trees at my site. One specific tree that I noticed because of its bark and the buds was the Boxelder, which seemed to be a very prominent tree in this area. In addition, I noticed the bud of a sugar maple and an American Beech as well. Also, there were several northern white oaks which I identified by the couple of dead leaves that still hung on the tree.

Buds:

  

Bud Drawing:

Overall, this section of the woods has a lot of different animals and plants dwelling here and I am excited to see it progress as the weather begins to get a bit warmer.

My Phenology Spot:

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