Emily Berkowitz’s Phenology Site Blog

Exploring Greater Burlington

For the BioBlitz (and a good time) my friends and I spent Saturday walking around Rock Point and North Beach Park. We walked downtown in the morning, grabbed some breakfast and wandered around Rock Point for a couple hours. Our goal was to explore, find new areas we hadn’t been to yet this year, and document some species!

iNaturalist

Using iNaturalist to document the species I found was a bit difficult. I was having trouble uploading and making sure I was actually submitting my observations to the right project. Eventually I figured it out but I was only able to submit 5 observations because of the amount of service I had on my phone. However, I am glad I was able to contribute even a little bit to the 1088 overall observations the Greater Burlington iNaturalist project has currently. My favorite feature on iNaturalist is the species identification suggestions that it automatically produces. I was struggling to identify a specific kind of spruce, but iNaturalist helped me confirm that it was a Norway spruce.

Observed Species

Throughout the day I found several eastern white pines, lots of honeysuckle, eastern hemlocks, paper birches, and Norway spruces. I was only able to submit these 5 species to iNaturalist due to uploading issues. However, I also went out towards the thrust fault cove at Rock Point and found northern white cedars and lots of buckthorn in the Limestone Bluff Cedar Forest on top of the cliff. Overall, I identified 7 species.

Global Reports

Before this class, I had never heard of the City Nature Challenge. It is hard to comprehend just how many people around the globe are actively participating in the same project. Currently there are over 900,000 observations around the world. It is such an amazing feat of citizen science and I know it is going to have such a positive impact on global biodiversity data. I also love how active the San Francisco Bay Area is! I never thought of my hometown as a place of much biodiversity, but the iNaturalist reports are clearly proving me wrong. The Bay Area is currently in 8th place out of all of the cities in the Americas which is amazing!

Tracking Experience 🐾

For my tracking excursion, I went to Centennial Woods with my friend Allison! It was lightly snowing while we were there but we did our best to trek into the parts of the woods far away from the main trail in hopes of finding some undisturbed tracks.

We walked around for awhile, but weren’t able to find much other than vague squirrel or rabbit tracks. They were everywhere, but given that it had been snowing for pretty much the whole day, most of the tracks just looked like indistinct imprints. Here are some examples:

However, after a bit of searching we found a long trail of those same looking tracks that we followed for about half a mile into the woods. I felt like a detective following a lead. We followed the tracks and puzzled together the story and motivations of the animal we followed. After a while, the tracks dead-ended into a pile of branches that was slightly hollow underneath. I’m not sure if it was the animal’s den, but if it is, I would assume the tracks we followed were a cottontail rabbit’s. If it was a squirrel, I don’t think it would have been on the ground so much for such a long period of time. Here are the photos I took of the tracks leading up the the den:

After following that one trail for a while, it started to get dark so we made our way out of the woods. However, on the way back we stumbled across a trail of paw prints. I’m 60% sure they are that of a grey fox but the other 40% of me wants to say they are a domestic dog’s. Centennial is a popular place for people to walk their dogs and they were fairly fresh. However, the tracks were far off the beaten path and I did not see any human footprints very close to them.

Other Wildlife Sightings 🪹

Other than my specific excursion to Centennial Woods to track, I have also seen wildlife signs while just walking around Burlington. I was on my way home from class one day when I started to hear a strange scratching noise. I took off my headphones and saw it was a grey squirrel munching on an acorn in a tree. It looked to be enjoying a nice snack on a snowy day. I captured this blurry photo of it:

Similarly, I was walking to the Hillel building earlier this week and saw a bird’s nest in one of the trees off the sidewalk. I assume it is no bird’s current home given the season, but I like how the nests remain there even after its inhabitants are gone. Hopefully, it will be repurposed by a new bird looking to start its family in the coming months!

iNaturalist🦉

Using iNaturalist was not too difficult once I figured out how to join the project. For some reason, my geolocations were not working so I had to update my posts after I returned home. I wished I found more distinct tracks so that I had something more concrete to upload. I feel a little strange uploading tracks that I’m not 100% sure of the species because I don’t want to submit false data. However, I did upload the ones I felt most confident about.

Wildlife Activity 🐿️

I have been able to visit my phenology spot twice since returning to campus. Once was during an active snowfall and the other was the day after it had rained so I got to see my site in two very different conditions.

As we were walking on the path into my site, I spotted a squirrel running through the snow and up onto a tree. I took a picture of it running up the tree and then the tracks it left behind. Instead of leaving footprints it left full body imprints because the snow was so deep which I thought was really cool. It took three big leaps between one tree and another which left three big holes in the snow.

The squirrel and its tracks were the only wildlife activity I noticed during my first visit on the 16th. When I went back on the 25th, the layer of snow was much thinner and much icier. I ventured more into the trees and found a couple of interesting things. First, I found evidence of a dog and its owner taking a stroll through my site. I really like how the snow leaves behind clues as to who was there before you. Growing up in California, I didn’t get to see snow very often. When I did see it, I wasn’t looking for the secret messages it was leaving behind so I love looking for them now!

Deeper in the trees I found a couple of strange looking holes that were close together. I’m not entirely sure if these are tracks because there is no consistent pattern I was able to observe. However, I don’t know what else could have made them so I thought I would include them here! There is also clear evidence of rain drops in the snow so it is possible that the rain had something to do with the bigger holes.

Last but certainly not least, I found a crazy looking creature emerging from its home in the subnivean zone! It looks eerily similar to my friend Allison 🙂

Phenological Changes ☃️

My favorite thing to do to track phenological changes in my phenology spot is to take the same photo every time I go. Here are the last tree times I visited, side by side!

There weren’t too many changes in the phenological aspects of my site since early December. Any of the remaining straggling leaves from early December are now long gone. The shrubbery has lost all of their leaves now as well. Vegetation wise, there are only bare sticks and the needles from the lovely Eastern white pines still attached to the plants and trees. As for the leaf litter, it is now mostly buried and frozen. It still consists of mainly red oak leaves but they are all very wet and/or frozen. There are some signs of slight decomposition, but not much.

Washington DC Phenology Place Google Map 📍

I am spending my Thanksgiving break in Washington DC with my family. While it is not where I am originally from, I grew up coming here with my family to visit my grandmother every fall break. One of our favorite places to visit every time we come here is Rock Creek Park. Rock Creek is a large urban park that bisects the Northwest quadrant of Washington DC. So when I heard about this assignment, I knew that is where I was going to go!

Photos 📷

Ecology Comparison 🌳

Vegetation wise, my place in DC and my place in Burlington are not that different. They both seem to be at a similar stage in leaf loss. Majority have already fallen off and the the leaves that do remain on the trees are quite brown. The main kinds of trees I identified in Rock Creek Park were chestnut oak and American beech with a couple American holly and sugar maples. The park is made up of entirely deciduous trees whereas my place in Burlington is majority deciduous with a couple Eastern white pines sprinkled in. The leaf litter on the ground was mainly composed of oak and beech leaves whereas at my place in Burlington it is mainly maple leaves. Another main difference is the presence of a large river or creek that goes straight through the middle of the park which affects the kinds of vegetation and soil composition near the banks. My place in Burlington does not have any bodies of water in it.

Honorable Harvest Gift 🌾

I was not able to leave any material gifts for my place, but instead I gave an act of service. I picked up any trash I saw on my walk through the park with my family. I hope this act showed my gratitude for this place as a natural sanctuary in the middle of the city!

Quiet Sit Experience 😌

I love coming to my spot to just sit and get away from the craziness of college living. I find myself here often, but this time I made sure to pay attention to the way I was feeling and purposefully experience my place. A lot of emotions came up during my 15 minutes. I felt calm, grateful, peaceful, anxious, sad, and (most prominently), cold. I took note of how nice it is to still have some leaves here and I tried to appreciate them as much as possible before they leave. I was also very appreciative of the sunlight that was keeping me a bit warmer because I know it won’t be around much longer either. There were many squirrels around me either chasing each other or burying their nuts in the ground to prepare for winter. A bit of my sadness came from the realization that the seasons are clearly changing and that signifies a significant passage of time. It is hard to believe that I have been in college for more than two months now!

Bird’s Eye View Map 🗺️

Changes Since Last Visit 🔄

There have been some significant changes since my last official visit to my phenology spot. Most of the trees are losing their leaves and the overstory has noticeably thinned. The leaves that remain in the overstory have changed color. The Northern Red Oak leaves are a dark rusty red color and the Sugar Maples are a nice bright yellow. However, the Common Buckthorn that makes up majority of the understory remains green. Another noticeable change since my last blog post visit was the weather. It was significantly colder during my most recent visit to the point where my hands started to get too cold while I was drawing my map that I had to take a break.

🌲🍂🍄 Introduction 🍄🍂🌲

For my phenology spot, I decided to chose a location a bit closer to home than most. I chose my lovely little patch of forest not only because it is convenient for a non-car, non-bike owning freshman like myself but also because I wanted to study a place that reflected my everyday environment. I stumbled upon this place for the first time during my second day of classes when I was exploring the bike path on a morning run. Now, I go here almost every single morning before I run to take a peaceful moment to stretch. A couple hundred feet past the start of the bike path to the right of Virtue Field, there is a small trail that juts into the forest on your right. There is a small trail that leads you directly into the middle of the grove where there is a clearing with a fallen tree that serves as a perfect bench.

Vegetation 🌿

The vegetation in my phenology spot is mainly tall deciduous trees like sugar maples occupying the overstory with smaller woody shrubs like buckthorn and sumac occupying the understory. I have not observed much diversity within the vegetation, but I do not yet possess the skills to identify every kind of species or notice differences between similar looking plants. However, I think my favorite attribute of the vegetation is the singular basswood tree near the main clearing in the forest.

Common Woody Plants 🍁

• Sugar Maples
• Northern Red Oak
• Common Buckthorn
• Sumac

Google Map📍