How has my spot changed, quite a lot actually from my first sit there. The leaves changed and fell, the ground cover went from green to brown and dead. My spot used to be very green and lush but now, in the later months of the fall and early months of winter it has become brown and mostly colorless. All the leaves are off the trees now except for a beach tree outside the circle of my spot. As I said in the first post my spot is a circle with a 40 yard diameter around where I sit, the beach tree with the leaves still on is outside that circle but still visible from my spot. Based on what I’ve learned about the native tree species the leaves on that beach tree should remain most of the way through the winter. The ground clutter is mostly brown now with almost all of the lush fern undergrowth having died or is on its way to death. The leaves have been wet for sometime and although you can still see individual leaves they are starting to compost and become the next layer of topsoil. For the first time in my sits I saw signs of animals other than the birds flying overhead. I saw a single Red Squirrel that was spending time in the trees, it spent most of its time outside the circle but did traverse the tree limbs and make its way into my circle. It spent maybe 3 or 4 minutes in my circle before hopping out of sight. Before he left though he did pose long enough for a quick picture.
The aspect of my phenology spot that I enjoyed the most wasn’t a physical thing, it was the ability and excuse to go and spend time in the woods and just sit and observe. I found it to be a fairly therapeutic experience and something I will continue to do even though the assignment has concluded for the semester. If I had to choose a physical thing that I enjoyed it would be the fern patch. I was drawn to it from the first sit there and I enjoyed watching it progress through the time spent sitting there and in labs when I saw it passing through.