Before leaving for Winter Break, I took one last visit to my phenology spot.
The foliage in my spot has changed a lot. I noticed the majority of my hardwood trees lost all of their leaves, except for a few red maples and many of the invasive species like; honeysuckle. And i noticed many of the ferns in my area looked very green and weren't showing many signs of the changing seasons. The photo below shows what many of the ferns in my spot looked like up on the hill!
The only vegetation/fruit I noticed in my area were the red berries beginning to grow on invasive buckthorn plants, which usually ripen in earlier fall so I was surprised to see them ripen this late in the season!
The first photo below is a picture of my spot during my last phenology visit, and the second photo is from my phenology visit today.
In these photos you can see the leaf litter pretty clearly, during the time that has past it seems like the leaf litter has definitely increased but not by as much as I expected. It seems many of the leaves in my most recent visit have begun to decompose, and while I didn't notice any decomposers like earthworms on the floor to break up the leaves into smaller pieces, I definitely did notice changes in the leaves appearance on the ground. During the earlier phenology visit the leaves still had color and the smell of decomposing leaves hadn't begun yet, but during my visit today I noticed all the leaves had lost their color, were broken up into layers (top layer being more whole, second layer being small and fragmented pieces) and the smell of decomposing leaves was very strong. Another change I noticed in the leaf litter were the addition of eastern white pine needles to the litter.
In this picture taken today you can see Eastern White Pine needles on the floor!
During my visit today I didn't noticed any tracks, scat, or signs of animals. But while sitting down for a few minutes I noticed how my area was the quietest it had ever been, I didn't hear any rustling from smaller animals in the distance or any bird calls/sounds. This point towards decreasing animal activity in my spot, and I think if there was snow on the group I would have noticed some of remaining animal activity in my area!
What aspects of your phenology place do I enjoy the most?
Today was overall a great visit, and reflecting on my first semester in my phenology area iv’e noticed many changes which make every visit so interesting. I feel like every time I visit my place there is something new and interesting to look at, like today I noticed the stream was beginning to freeze but only slightly, but when I went farther downstream I noticed it was mostly frozen because the water flow was much lighter, and downstream I stood for a while watching the bubbles from the water slowly freeze. Another aspect i love about my place is the diversity between the stream, wetland area, and then the evergreen area up on the hill which gives me so much to observe and so much more to understand.
Below are pictures in chronological order from each of my visits!
