A UVM blog Phenology Project; Orem

This semester I have gotten to see my Phenology spot go through each season, examining everything from the smallest prints in the snow to the first emerging leaves. I have gained a connection to the peace of my spot, the familiarity and comfortability, so this Saturday to celebrate the warming weather I went for a sunrise walk to my spot. I left before dawn so I could hear the birds come alive with the sun, on my way there I noticed some of the paper birch buds beginning to pop, along with certain red oaks. Most of the Acer family is in full bloom or has already started leafing out, filling the canopy with many green to red flowers and leaves.

I decided to practice some meditation in my spot, listening to the morning avian chorus, sitting by the makeshift fire pit, I realized how lucky we all are to have these urban wilds so accessible. Even though this semester I have mainly used my spot for tranquility and peace, I know many of the students on campus use it as a social spot. As the weather has warmed and the vegetation has begun to come out of dormancy, so has the social activity in this patch. I believe a large part of the UVM culture surrounds the outdoors and natural spaces, so my spot serves as a intersection between human influence and natural patterns. For my sketch I decided to make a birds eye map of this narrow corridor, exemplifying the importance of even small natural spaces. some of the main identifying landmarks in the patch are the fire pit, pond and downed pine, my sketch also shows how urban/manicured the surrounding areas are.

I consider this place to be an urban wild, specifically available to UVM students. I feel that I do belong in this place and that my participation and conservation in it makes me a part of the place as well. Examining the Phenological changes in this place has allowed me to notice more than I would notice in a natural space new to me. For instance the detritus and leaf litter has reached the fragmentation stage of decomposition, having already leached most of the tannins into the soil over winter and early spring. The evidence for digging means my grey squirrel friends have returned to locate the treasures they buried last fall. over this year I have specifically tuned into the minute changes in my spot, and I will undoubtably continue to visit next year as well.

This weekend I had time to explore around campus with the iNatualist app, mainly I identified species I could ID off sight, with the help of my field guide. I traversed the woods between redstone campus, athletic fields and the Burlington country club, this mixed deciduous forest includes a small pond with a gravel bank. The pond was hosting a wood frog, who evaded me taking a picture. I found some staghorn sumac by the bank, along with some eastern white pines in the area which i identified by their fallen cones.

Further down the path I found some violet toothed polypore growing on deciduous bark, along with a sugar maple Identified off bark and what I believe to be burning bush. Using the app allowed me to check the ID of species in the field, using my knowledge as a backbone, as well as sending in pictures for Identification that I have no guesses on. I had a great time Identifying and learning species in Burlington, I was shocked how many species coming from Cape Town, South Africa. It has been amazing seeing how much citizen science and data can add up!

I spent an hour this Sunday April 27th walking around campus and collecting phenological data on five specific trees around campus. The first tree I visited was the Red Oak off main street, tagged 615, the buds had just begun to burst out of their protective shell, just beginning to change for spring.

The second tree i visited was a sugar maple in front of the Davis center, tagged 618, the buds had completely burst open with flowers out and hanging prominently, with leaf buds poking but not breaking.

Next I examined the White oak behind Aiken center tagged 761, this tree is still in its dormancy stage, with no bud breakage.

The Red maple tagged 280 in front of Stafford hall had full flowers out, with the beginnings of leaf bud breaking.

The Norway maple, tagged 3262, off the corner of billings had full flowers out with leaf buds beginning to break. Looking on the NPN website I learned more about the total day-temperature ratio and how it affects different families of trees.

Over this week I got to explore more of the Burlington area and travel to the Intervale center for lab as well as cross country skiing around and outside of campus. Visiting the Intervale center after fresh snow allowed the opportunity to identify more species tracks that might not be so common in Burlington proper. My crew started with the recreation aspect of lab, while xc skiing we came across tracks that looked to be cottontail rabbit, because of its foot shape and hopping pattern.

when we split up for tracking my crew came across a group of downy woodpecker, and the snags they were chopping up! we identified the downy woodpecker by their red crown and unique black and white speckling patterns on their wings, head and back. 

getting deeper into the thicket we saw lots of what looked to be mink tracks, and what we suspected to be a den inside a subnivean tree hollow. we suspected mink tracks because of the small size, about 6cm, stride, ranging between 50-100cm and the narrow straddle, about 6cm. 

We came across tracks that looked similar to mink tracks in pattern but were smaller in size, straddle and stride. iNaturalist identified these as weasel tracks, and later I found what I believe to be the prints of a house cat based on the small size, paw pattern and its leading to a fence, inclosing a house.

The new year has brought fresh snow and fresh tracks for me to study. I have identified these tracks as those of an Eastern Cottontail Rabbit.

The tracks aren’t the only change I’ve seen, as there seems to be no remaining leaves in the hardwoods and decomposition has taken affect in the subnivean zone.

There were much more than just rabbit tracks in my spot, but I haven’t been able to identify any other species yet, so hopefully more tracking will train my eye!

This is the first snow I have seen in my phenology spot, and at this point winter is almost in full tilt. with most of the leaves gone its mostly trunks and twigs over a bed of snow.

The only remaining leaves are stragglers on Northern red oak and shagbark elm. almost all the underbrush is bare, leaf breakdown and decomposition has started underneath the snow.

the tracks around my phenology spot were mostly dog and human but I spotted these two fat squirrels eating up in a tree together. the bird activity has decreased significantly, and I didn’t see other scat or tracks in the area.

My favorite Part of my Phenology place this semester has been getting outside with the direct purpose of observing and noticing small details. It feels different going outside to learn rather than going outside, being disconnected from your surroundings or sense of place.

I spent a portion of this break in Randolph VT and I went out hiking in the Rochester wildlife reserve. In the reserve i found a place to stand around sunset and I took a few pictures of the trail.

The elevation in the Rochester wildlife reserve is almost 2000 ft higher than my Phenology place in Burlington, located on the green mountains. The reserve got around 4 inches of snow over the weekend so the trails were still fresh with only a few tracks. The wildlife reserve is mainly coniferous with scattered hardwoods, compared to my phenology spot which is mainly hardwoods with scattered conifers. As a gift to this place I did not stay out past sunset to allow free wildlife activity.

Visiting my Phenology place again, it looks very different from just a few weeks ago. At this point 100% of the ground is covered in leaves, where earlier the ground cover was closer to 50%. The canopy is very sparce with only a few of the eastern red oaks, shagbark hickory and sugar maple still have a handful of leaves left, with the white pines and buckthorn retaining their vegetation. Its easier to see now that the leaves have fallen, the majority of the saplings in the stand are sugar maple.

For my birds eye map I decided to center it on the fallen tree fort, I noted stands and individual trees within the area from a top perspective.

My phenology place is a strip of woods between the athletic fields and the Redstone campus, adjacent to the Vermont country club’s golf course.

I chose this patch of woods because I think it is an excellent representation of human impacts on natural spaces. This patch of woods has a path cutting through it as well as a fire pit and branch teepee, it is not a heavily used footpath so beside the trail the soil isn’t too compact.

The woody plant species in this section of woods include Eastern White Pine, Sugar Maple, Northern Red Oak, Norway Maple and what INaturalist Identified as a White Ash. The understory is majority saplings, Ivy’s and woody bushes.