The site I chose to study while on spring break in my hometown is just behind my house. I notice some similarities and differences between my Burlington site and Gorham site. They both have water features — with the stream running through my Burlington site and a small frozen pond hidden in the woods of my Gorham site. These features significantly effect the hydrology of both areas. My Gorham site does not have the steep slopes and plateau ridge that my Burlington site does. Instead, the forest floor undulates significantly with the majority of trees and vegetation growing out of the higher spots. My Gorham site has a greater mix of deciduous and coniferous trees with lots of hemlocks and red oak, some eastern white pine, sugar maple, red maple, American beech, and white oak. This site also has much more of an understory than the site in Burlington. I suspect the reason for this is the amount of sunlight that is able to get through to the forest floor. The Gorham site has a less densely packed canopy which allows high bush blueberry plants, buckthorn, and maleberry shrubs to grow (https://www.distanthillgardens.org/workshop-resources/tree-shrub-id/). There are more of these shrubs on the outer edges of the pond, possibly due to the greater amount of sunlight available there. I heard what I believe to be a tufted titmouse call (https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Tufted_Titmouse/sounds).
Regarding the natural history of this site, I believe it is a forest that was not logged durning the 1800s-1900s. I can make this conclusion because i see little evidence of logging. There are also very few shade intolerant trees, most notably white birch, and a significant number of American beech. American beech was very common in the Eastern United States in pre colonial times but after logging, wasn’t as dominant due to the greater amounts of sunlight reaching into forests.
I noticed evidence of deer crisscrossing through the landscape. The large number of hemlocks make the site a great spot for deer because they like to take shelter beneath the boughs of the tree. Judging from the number of tracks and their size difference, I would estimate that a group of 3-5 deer have made these woods their home for a period of time.
I also noticed many areas of deer scat.