April 10th

When I went back to my site on April 9th, the weather was noticeably warmer, there was no more snow, and a lot of other species were starting to put out tiny leaves. This paper birch still hadn’t gone through any noticeable changes, but it was difficult to see the buds because they were so high up. I checked a few other nearby paper birch trees to see if they had started to put out leaves, but all of the birches in the area still hadn’t begun to open their buds. Paper birch is one of the later species in our list to flower in the spring, but I expect that the birches in Centennial will begin to change soon. Below are two different birches in Centennial, one is the original that I’ve visited for the past few weeks, and another is a younger tree with buds a little closer to the ground.