A UVM blog Dennis’ Phenology Blog

After visiting in a new season, my phenology spot has seen numerous changes. For one, everything is much, much greener – plants, grass, and the leaves of most trees are fully out, signaling the beginning of summer. The ground is littered with the maple and oak leaves from seasons prior, as a consistent shade of green and yellow take over the planned forest.

This visit was also far more lively than the last, with the constant sounds of birds chirping, bushes rustling, and squirrels running about.

Below is a photo I was able to take of a common gray squirrel mid jump

And of course, below is another check in for the legacy pine, surrounded by young oaks, tall maples, and paper birches just out of frame.

Nature and culture intertwine in this place as it has very interesting history. Its constant deforestation for industry in the last century has shifted this park alongside Vermont’s values for nature. When Vermont embodied a lumber industry powerhouse – so did this plot of land. The majority of the trees in this forest are very young, in fact, the only tree still standing from this parks entire recorded history is the 300 year old legacy pine that is pictured above (for some reason or another the land developers always chose to spare that tree, from when the park was grazing land to when it was a timber operation). In the current day, the park embodies the state’s more modern culture surrounding nature, the outdoors, recreation, and conservation. It also serves as a cultural center for the nearby community, being located right next to a residential area and serving those that live and visit there.

However, as beautiful as my spot is, I cannot say that I am “part” of this place. It’s out of the way from where I reside, and serves mainly those living closer to it. For that reason alone, I wouldn’t consider myself a part of this place – just a curious tourist and environmentalist that enjoys the nature that Red Rocks Park has to offer.

Throughout the City Nature challenge I spent a lot of time exploring the Burlington Area

My main highlight was walking alongside the Winooski river for hours on end, finding a variety of pretty spots and trails that cross just out of the way from downtown Winooski.

Some of my most interesting observations included spotting a few “Wooly Bear” caterpillars, and a Monarch butterfly (that was too quick for my to get a shot of). I didn’t get too lucky in seeing a lot of animals or organism interaction, but I did certainly find interesting finding a variety of new locations to go back and visit.

Below is a cool shot from under a bridge from off of one of many trails along the Winooski

During the challenge I also explored throughout the Intervale, finding beautiful views of the Winooski river and exploring the ecology of the surrounding riparian buffer forest, below is a shot I took moments after sunset

Using iNaturalist was pretty fascinating, it was very interesting to see observations come in from so many different places, a highlight that I unfortunately forgot to screenshot was someone’s discovery of an absolutely massive stick bug in Southern Texas known as a “Walkingstick”. I never heard of this type of stick bug and the photo presented stuck with me for a bit for being rather scary (the insect was at least 7 inches in length). It was also shocking to learn that this species of stickbug was present throughout most of the Continental US due to its resilience.

Today’s spring view from the entrance of Rock Point Park!

Since my last visit to Rock Point, the general phenology has become much more spring like, with the snow cover disappearing entirely and being replaced with the cover of fallen leaves, sprouting couch grass, and exposed moss.

Another example of sprouting plants after winter, this is a geranium at the foot of a sugar maple tree.

Along the main trail I spotted what I believe to be squirrel trails, with partially eaten acorns alongside them. However, it was hard to tell due to the main trail being heavily packed and the off trail being covered in dead maple and oak leaves.

Lastly, here is a basic species interaction diagram I made with several of the species I have spotted throughout my visits to Red Rock Park.

I have spent many hours walking around Vermont since yesterday, beginning my day in an excursion to Montpelier with some of my friends to go hiking and explore the town. My day ended with a long walk to North Beach from campus to see the sunset.

Here is a photo I took near Hubbard Park, Montpelier. A fairly typical sunny March day, fairly cold but with not a significant amount of snow away from forested areas.

As is apparent from the image, this point in March is still definitively winter in Northern Vermont. No trees outside of pines, evergreens, and cedars have notable amounts of leaves, and with the exception of a few birds such as sparrows, a crow that I saw, squirrels, and a woodpecker I did not note a significant amount of animal presence when in the woods. Alongside a snowy hill deeper into the woods, we saw a bunch of people still enjoying winter activities such as sledding.

The deeply wooded areas further up the mountains surrounding the town still have a decent amount of snow, and when passing through a mountain trail I noted some tracks from what seems to be a white-tailed deer, alongside some droppings.

Back in Burlington, here is a photo from North Beach along Lake Champlain. Snow and ice is still present, with cedars, pines, and hemlock near the shore retaining their pines and leaves. The beach was more or less deserted, with a brave couple running into to the water in low 20 degree windy weather.

Location of new spot:

https://goo.gl/maps/h6Hb9hrHUHjPwH288

Upon arriving to my new spot, I noticed just how open and unique the trails were. Littered with paper Birch, northern red oak, and cedar, the fairly young Red Rocks forest was a sight to behold. Dotted around the park are many points of interest, such as this massive and historic pine tree seen below

Upon my initial walk around my new spot, I spotted a variety of animal trails. In this photo below, small, paw-like tracks indicate the likely presence of a red fox (with the tracks to the left being those of humans). Overall however, most tracks that I spotted most were those of either humans or squirrels.

This spot is special as it is generally unvisited and unknown by most DC residents and visitors. It is off of an already little known trail in a quiet neighborhood subsidiary of Rock Creek Park. It is interesting as the spot is unlike anything seen in most of Rock Creek, which generally consists of spread out, old oak forests instead of dense young forest. From what I can tell, the trees have similar bark and leaves to white oak, with some having bark akin to American beechwood, however are skinnier and taller than normal, almost like a teak tree. The only way to really find the spot is to get lost and stumble across it hiding behind a series of oaks and dense buckthorn bushes, as I did earlier this year.

A photo of the dense, young oak/beechwood forest present at my spot

Compared to my phenology spot in Burlington, this spot is far more dense and is not near a major body of water. The vast majority of plants in the overstory are oak and beechwood, compared to the larger white cedar and Eastern White Pine present at my Burlington spot. However, buckthorn and honeysuckle are both present in the understories of each spot, as well as spotting’s of sparrows and squirrels. However, white tailed deer was a very frequent sighting in DC compared to Burlington where most animals spotted were of the smaller variety. The Burlington spot is also likely less planned, as the tightly packed nature of the forest in my DC spot and its inconsistency with the rest of Rock Creek park indicates that the trees were likely planted for erosion management.

Lone Rock Point event map, from the lakefront trail, through North Beach, then through the forested cliffside trail.

And now, a haiku about my beautiful visit to Lone Rock:

The trees swayed stoutly

A strangely warm winter day

With a gorgeous view

Not much changed since my last visit with the exception of increased wind and more visible fall foliage from the cedar canopy layer. Still beautiful as always!

I decided to choose Lone Rock Point for my phenology spot due to its beauty and relative ease of access. I accessed my spot by walking from my dorm (Millis) to North Beach via taking main street down to the waterfront, and going along the waterfront through the walking trail all the way until North beach (around 3 miles). 

From North Beach, I continued until the edge and walked through a series of woods to eventually arrive at Lone Rock, above is a photo of the beautiful lone rock itself with its interesting phenology (and a surprising amount of people freezing themselves in Lake Champlain).

On top of just being beautiful, Lone Rock and its surrounding area is home to a diverse array of plant and animal species.

Among the trees that I noted, the Overstory seemed to be mainly comprised of Northern White Cedar, as well as Eastern White pine. Less common trees in the overstory included sugar maple, green ash, and even shagbark Hickory. The understory mainly consisted of Buckthorn and Honeysuckle.

Animals included Red and Gray Squirrels, as well as chipmunks and a variety of bird species such as Woodpeckers and Pelicans. I even saw what I believe was a golden-winged Warbler under the cedars lining the cliff.