Phenology blog

In my phenology spot, it has a long history of battling to stay a natural area. In the past, the school dumped cadavers in the wetlands. Trails were never maintained. I have a soft spot for the area because of what it’s been through just to be itself. I consider myself to be a part of my place because of the emotional attachment that I have built with my place. The transitions from fall, winter, and spring have left an imprint on me because it describes how I change through time in this new place.  

 I went around campus, centennial woods, and around the city of Burlington. My experience using iNaturalist was eye-opening. At first, I didn’t understand why people used it so much but because of the BioBlitz, it made me want to go outside. The competition has made me find many species that I would have never known existed. I really do think it’s a great way to get people outside using our competitive nature. I have encountered over 80 species which include plants, fungi, birds, fish, and mammals. Other countries like Ukraine having a war within the country and still managing to take the time to observe nature is truly inspirational. 

Off in the distant background you can see fresh greenery just coming to life near the brook that flows in Centennial Woods.

Lady ferns and Spiltgill Mushrooms found at my site

I went out to explore Burlington and found this perfect area between houses and centennial woods. The conditions were perfect. There was a layer of ice below the snow allowing for a good imprint by the animals. On the left side we have a fisher and on the far right is a snowshoe hare. I wanted to also highlight their tracks intersect at one point. I wanted the picture in the middle to symbolize two animals and two worlds interconnected. I loved using the iNaturalist app because it was able to easily identify for me what animal made the tracks and also I can find where certain animal sitings were so I can get the best results from my outing.

Since my last visit, there was snow on the ground but not enough for us to see the beautiful tracks made by the animals. It was fun visiting my site again after a month of being away and seeing the snow accumulation. On the far left side, we have a nice cluster of tracks from what appears to be a cottontail rabbit. In the middle, though I would say this is my snow mystery. I wanted to show something that was by my site, it’s not an animal track but it is still something cool to share with others. In the image frozen water in a small stream. While I was taking the picture the plants were moving as if the water underneath was still flowing.

To the left we have bunny tracks, in the middle we have rose hips( I could be wrong there are multiple red berries), and to the right is my phenology spot.

I’m really excited to share with you all the beauty of the snow. I was so excited to get out and explore my site in a new scenery. I really enjoyed exploring Centennial Woods with fresh powder on the ground.

Below we have tracks found on a wood log going across a stream right on my spot. I have a few guesses for who this could be…

My lovely friend that made my day exploring, the great Barred owl

Siting for 15 minutes, complete silence was a therapeutic experience that I would now incorporate in life whenever I find myself in beautiful places.

Here is just a sketch of the view I had while sitting in silence for 15 minutes.

Since arriving to Burlington when I first visited this place was full of ferns and the trees had their beautiful green leafs. Now coming back to Centennial Woods Ive noticed mushrooms popping up and dead leaves on the forest floor. It leaves quite an impression on me to see such change over time in a single place and the beauty that fallows each season.

Announcement

I have had to switch phenology spots due to the access of getting there.

My new spot is now a lovely area in Centennial Woods where a flowing creek is moving through it and hillside of large red maples and Eastern white pines.

My new found place tucked away in a small area of kempsville Virginia. This place does not have a name so I gave it a name, goose pond. The surrounding plant life is made of cattails and other bushy and weed like  plants. The tree species shown is a grouping of short leaf pine,Eastern white pine, Virginia pine, and white oak. Virginia is known to have a variety of oak tree species as many as seven different types of oak. Comparing this little place to my phenology spot in Burlington the maple trees are the species that stands out. Both spots have oak and pine in them but the difference in the two is the maple tree species is found in Vermont more abundantly even though there are maple trees found in the Virginia state forest. In a city that I thought lacked biodiversity proved me wrong, I was surprised to see similar species in abundance and the size of the pines in this state. I had an eye opening experience coming to see a new state observing the landscape versus Vermont landscape. One highlight that is shown in the pictures is Canadian geese; it’s one the reasons I picked this spot. They are lovely and large birds. It was a joy watching them and seeing them return every day.

I first started out behind Jeffords hall and found an adorable baby Christmas tree in the garden. I then made my way along Crabapple lane( Carrigan Drive). I came to the centennial woods sign and ventured onwards. My first observation that caught my eye was the white pine tree grove. I took a right from the white pines and stumbled on some fungi growing on a dead paper Birch. Walking farther down I saw a massive boulder and small creek behind it. As I followed the creek I came across a cool arch way above the water. I retraced my steps going left of the white pine grove walking along the wooden bridge. There was a tree with two or three significant holes for maybe birds or squirrels. I took a left from there and found a big grey mushroommmmm. I stumbled upon another creek with a nice log to cross to the other side. Finally I see an amazing giant twin white pine.