The foliage has changed since my last visit, but it looked pretty similar to my visit to Indian Brook. The most noticeable changes since my visit in the beginning of November is that the ground is no longer covered in a thick layer of leaf litter. The layer, while still there, is much thinner, and the colors of the leaves on the ground are much more brown than they were in November. Most of the trees that had had leaves last visit have lost all their leaves. That being said, both the Norway and Silver Maple had a few leaves still hanging on. While walking in the woods around my spot, I found barberry, which wasn’t included in my initial list of species but it did have a few berries left although no leaves remained. On the same trek through the woods I found both Eastern White Pines and an Eastern Hemlock, which both had needles left. The hemlock had significantly more needles remaining than the pine trees. I also noticed that the Oriental Bittersweet still had its red berries.
I found little evidence of animals during my visit. I saw a flock of birds in the water for a few minutes as well as some flying overhead. I also saw what I am assuming were woodpecker holes in trees, but I did not see the woodpeckers themselves. Animal activity has significantly decreased, as my first visit I saw much more wildlife out and about then I did this visit.
Reflection : I really enjoyed seeing the seasonal changes in my phenology place. The first time I visited it was the middle of fall, so the foliage was colorful and there were green plants everywhere, as well as animals out and about. This past visit, many of the trees had lost all of their leaves entirely, and I saw much less wildlife. But because I was visiting biweekly, I was able to see the changes as they occurred, so it didn’t seem sudden at all. This was really cool because I looked at past pictures of my site while I was there on this visit and I could compare how it used to look to how it does now. Another thing I enjoyed was the geography of my site, I liked that there was a rocky point, as well as a beach and woods. It was nice because I could explore many different environments in one site. Finally, I liked that my site was active, it had a lot of wildlife around at the beginning, as well as a huge variety of species that I was able to learn more about.