Endurance (January)
On my walk to my phenology site, I went after dark around 5:30. Right as I approached the stand of my site, a red fox emerged from the trees and leisurely crossed the road. I shined my flashlight at it and it looked at me but seemed pretty used to human activity and didn’t care. It crossed the road and I followed it. Directly across the road from my phenology site where I had seen many squirrels and chipmunks was a bird feeder with a practical pile of seeds below it. This clearly connects the abundance of chipmunk and squirrels to the presence of a predator like a fox, even in this incredibly urban environment. I followed the fox to a thicket where I could see its eyes reflecting beneath, then it turned and went under a fence where I couldn’t follow it. I was really astounded to see a shy animal like a fox 5 minutes from Redstone campus. I have also seen deer multiple times on the golf course by my stand and easily found some tracks. The bud I found was a sugar maple bud. Since my last visit, there is a legitimate snowpack on the ground, and many animals are hidden away. The biggest difference is the lack of bird diversity. Where I used to see some finch and robins there are only crows and chickadees. However the bird feeder across the street seems to be very popular, and an easy source of food for the surrounding animals. This is likely a vital supplement of the animals in the stand since there is not a lot of biodiversity and most of the understory is crowded out by buckthorn. There are lots of large white oak which supply many acorns to the rodents.
