Delaney O’Brien’s Phenology Blog

Hiiii, some how the year has flown by and I am now turning in my last phenology blog submission wow! In addition to the finalized blog, I was instructed to talk about my experience with the City Nature Challenge iNaturalist BioBlitz. Unfortunately, it has been a rough end to the year for me with mental health issues, and the rain definitely didn’t help, but as the sun poked out the past few days I did some exploring just around redstone campus to capture some iNaturalist observations! I really love using iNaturalist to provide answers to my curiosity, but obviously it is not always correct, I regret not going try hard and exploring more of Greater Burlington and finding more species but I did get outside and scan some of the plants that I see everyday, but was never sure of the names. Some of these include arborvitaes, dandelions, genus reynoutria, mulleins, wild sarsaparilla, maple trees, and domestic dog foot prints. It was very nice taking a non Rubenstein friend out and about to scan and observe these common plants and just enjoy some fresh air. I loved seeing the comparisons of different cities, and I would love to see the City Nature Challenge take place in a different city one day. Thank you for teaching me so much, and I am excited to be back and take advantage of my resources better next year (and go try hard in the City Nature Challenge 2024)

All of a sudden my freshman year is ending, and I visited my phenology site that I have gone to many many times in the last two semesters for the last time. I was able to sit and enjoy the calmness of my spot with the much needed rain today, and reflect on how my site has changed, and how I have changed over the past 9 months. Phenologically I saw many differences, at the beginning of the year my spot was very full and colorful, the pond was green and filled, there was shrubbery everywhere, and trees full of colored leaves. Now my spot is becoming green again after a few months of dead/snow covered woody plants. It was drearier than usual today, but still feels very plain and weak compared to the beginning of the year, but I am sure that the summer will rebuild the area and it will be full again. The pond has been changed by humans, I’ve seen them on a boat out there, and now it is more drained and a grosser color lol. I became familiar with specific trees, and logs that I’ve sat on all year, and more recently, a hill that looks over the whole site, and all of WDW. I found that a lot more people enjoyed walking through my spot, hammocking in it, and just sitting on the logs as the year progressed and as the weather got warmer recently. I do consider myself to have become a part of my place, I believe that I will return to this wooded area next year when I need to sit outside and relax, or do some homework. I really love looking back at my pictures and comparing the site over the course of the year, and remembering how I have changed along with the phenology. Until next time!

GOOD NEWS! The sun is shining, the birds are chirping, and my good old Northern Red Oak homie is happy. I know you’re wondering…Delaney, how do you know your tree is happy? Well, I found evidence of budding yeah yeah yeah cool guy emoji. I did in fact take sick pics of my tree at golden hour yahhh but I think there is a pretty slim chance that you can see the budding in the pictures, you’ll have to take my word for it. Spent a while chilling in my phenology spot (with my tree lover) soaking up the sun and fresh air, and facetiming my family at their easter dinner heart emoji. Anyways, it has been splendid checking up on my Northern Red Oak, and although I did not see any flowering or fruiting yet, I definitely have noticed changes within the tree BUDDING being one of them woohoo happy spring y’all. 33 days left in the semester lit crazy movie.

Today I revisited the Northern Red Oak tree from 2 weeks ago to note any changes, but unfortunately I did not notice much of a difference in the tree itself. I still found no evidence of flowering, fruiting, or budding, but the sun was out today, and there was a lot more mud and bare ground rather than snow, which is very different from the freezing temperatures and snow from a few weeks ago. I expect to see real Spring changes before my next blog post as the temperatures increase and the phenological calendar continues on. 🙂

I spent my spring break at home, that being Hamburg, New York (just South of Buffalo), so the phenology is pretty much in line with Vermont. I chose my spot to be my backyard pond and woods in which I took some time snowshoeing in with a hometown friend and my dogs. My backyard is similar to my spot at school since they both have a pond, trees, and other forms of life, but my backyard is much more diverse, bigger, and rural than my school spot. My pond is very large and is super attractive for animals, we spend lots of time fishing, swimming, ice skating, paddle boarding, and sitting at the pond so we tend to see animals interacting with the pond, but during this excursion I was not lucky enough to see any animal life, probably due to the presence of my dogs. My pond was dug out 20 years ago, and is now a significant ecosystem and source of joy about 500 feet from my house. I did not notice any bird activity but usually I see geese in the spring. The woody plants were very bare and still in their winter state just as I noticed in Burlington, it is still pretty cold and snowy here but I know there will be huge changes by the time I come back home in May.

This week at my phenology site I observed different tree species which were a bit difficult to determine due to their lack of leaves and overall bareness in the cold. One tree that I found from our list was a Northern Red Oak. I uploaded this tree to INaturalist annotating the phenological phase with no evidence of flowering, fruiting, or budding. I am hoping that as the snow melts, and the temperatures rise as Spring goes on I will see big changes in this same tree!

This week we were told to visit any sight in Burlington and find evidence of wildlife! I chose to visit North Beach since it was super nice and sunny out and I found lots of animal tracks in the mud, and little remaining snow patches. I enjoyed utilizing iNaturalist to keep track of my findings, and my red Mammal Tracks and Scat guide of course. My NR friends and I were able to identify White-tailed Deer tracks, Raccoon tracks (we think), American Red Squirrel tracks, and we found various bird feathers which was expected when standing right on the beach. Overall, I had a great time at North Beach exploring and soaking up the sun 🙂

Back at groovy uv with a new update to my phenology spot! Due to the snow covering, I was able to spot some animal tracks…dog for sure, and one other mystery animal. I also found a lot of human footprints, and ski tracks. Everyone was excited to be back and participate in some winter recreational activities so the tracks make a lot of sense. Since my last update there has been quite a bit of change: the pond is currently freezing over, not completely frozen though, the trees are pretty much completely bare except for a few remaining maple leaves holding on yet covered in frost, and the shrubbery is either covered by the snow, decomposed, or weighed down by recent snowfall. It feels great being back in my spot especially at such a beautiful time, and it is exciting looking back to the pictures from a few months ago and seeing a very noticeable difference.

pond freezing over

When revisiting my phenology spot the first thing I noticed was how bare it looked. Months ago I could not see through the woods, but now with all the leaves on the ground I could see all the way through the woods, it definitely cleared out a bit. I also noticed that the pond has changed to a grayish color and parts of it have begun to be covered by a thin sheet of ice. The whole area was very bland looking and a little depressing compared to October, but it is definitely prepared for snow! Mostly all of the trees have lost all their leaves, except for a few maples that were holding on to a couple crumpled up leaves. I was very disappointed during this visit because instead of finding animal evidence all I could see was an overwhelming amount of human evidence. I am aware that since this spot is on campus next to a parking lot there is not a ton of animal life, but the amount of garbage I found was horrifying and would keep any animal away. Next time I visit my spot I will be brining along gloves, a trash bag, and some friends to help clean it up! Although my phenology spot is not as pretty and colorful as it once was, I was happy to be there and I am excited to see it covered in snow soon.

Here is the picture of my home through google maps, and my pond, which I was unable to get to in the snow.