Leopold: This week was thanksgiving and our class was tasked to find a special place to call our phenology spot for the week. I chose the cliff that overlooks the towering Cross River Dam in Bedford, Ny. The dam spans across the aptly named Cross River Reservoir, one of the many used as potable water for New York City. The cliff is constituted by igneous rock as far as I can tell, and is mostly sheer from its peak to the ground. If one is bold enough to peer over the edge, they’ll see the rushing stream of water, the splashing water like white rabbits rushing down stream. Small beech, and cedar trees dominate the top of the cliff, with a few eastern white pines towering behind them away from the cliff. The icy wind whips across the open peak making it ever more colder and my hand become hard to move. I spot a few beige and brown birds, as all the others have began their migration south. They are most likely sparrows or possibly female cardinals. When they go with the wind they become a blur in the air. The lichens, pale and blue-green cling to the rock for dear life in a paper thin layer. Sadly there is also the cigarette butt here and there along with a beer can or two. I pick them up to leave a better cliff than I arrived to.
Holland: The small landscape found on top of the cliff is quite similar to my place in Burlington. Both are of deciduous make up with the species of trees and shrubs being those you would also find in Vermont. The beech, cedar, pine, etc could be picked up and placed in Vermont and feel right at home. Another similarity is that the area is wet like in Burlington because of the large amount of recent rain along the eastern seaboard. The difference is found in the seasonal cycle of the place in comparison to my place in Burlington. The trees have lost most of their leaves, like in Vermont, but it seems that it has happened more recently than it has in Vermont. The leaves and needles on the ground are visibly less decayed than in Centennial Woods and the trees do look less gray. In my phenology place in Burlington there is also no large rocks when a lot of the space on top of the cliff is rock which allows itself to have different types of fungus than what I usually find on the trees or deadwood in Centennial.
Link to phenology spot location: https://www.google.com/maps/place/Cross+River+Reservoir/@41.2545141,-73.6415395,16z/data=!4m5!3m4!1s0x89c2afcc56346ed3:0x54e7e026409687c2!8m2!3d41.2547603!4d-73.637432
Dam Photo:
You can see the cliff where my phenology place is on the left.
