I have chosen a new phenology site to study for this semester. This site is easiest to get to by biking. There is a well kept sidewalk that runs along Spear Street directly from UVM’s campus. The site is about 1.5 miles from UVM. You will know you are almost there when you pass the George D. Aiken Forestry Sciences Laboratory. Continue along this path until you get to the bridge, the site will be directly to your right at this point.
To view a map of my new phenology site, please visit the following link:
https://drive.google.com/open?id=16shHYE-Pasq1mILa6x_8Xsj10B3RUVCJ&usp=sharing
My first visit to my new site was a great success. I discovered lots of animal activity and I am exited to continue to see the changes throughout the landscape. The site is beautiful, yet the tranquility is interrupted by the drone of the nearby highway. Despite this, it seems that animals are drawn to the river, sloping banks, and variety of trees. One thing I noticed was that there was much more of an understory growing along the path, but very little after moving 5-10 feet into the site. I reason that this is because the path provides opportunity for the sun to reach the understory. In the center of the site, Eastern Hemlock and Eastern White Pine grow with their thick branches catching the majority of the sunlight.
Winter Twig Identification
Deciduous trees on my site include:
Red Maple:
Red Oak:
Black Cherry:
American Beech:
Wildlife Activity
My site was riddled with animal tracks. The main set of tracks I followed and studied belong to what I believe to be a grey fox.
The fox’s tracks had four toes with an X in its negative space. The track’s width was 5 cm and its length was 5 cm.
I followed the tracks from where they entered my site on the west side of the river, across the river, up the steep slope, directly through the center of my site, and out on the other side where they entered a trail used by walkers and cross country skiers. I lost the tracks here. The fox moved directly through and seemed to be walking at an even pace. The tracks lengthened just before a log that the fox jumped on top and over, and they shortened on the other side where it landed.
One curious aspect of the tracks is that at one point, there were two sets of fox tracks with the same measurements that converged into the same path. The second set of tracks led across the river on the other side of my site and near a residential area. This could mean there were two foxes or the same fox visited my site at two different occasions and may frequently pass through.
I also noticed many grey squirrel tracks throughout my site.
The tracks showed a clear galloper pattern with the front feet landing and the larger back feet falling in front.
Here, you can see a clear print of just the squirrels front feet.
The squirrel(s) weren’t on the ground for very long and each track went immediately from the base of one tree to the next, except for one. One set of tracks let from a tree directly to this spot of disturbance in the snow with a pine cone and pine needles in it. I reason that the squirrel stopped here to eat some sort of food, possibly something that fell from the trees.