A UVM blog NR 1020 Phenology Blog

Spring is getting close to fully arriving at my spot on the Burlington Bike Path. When I visited for my last time this semester, it was around 50 degrees and sunny, which made it feel fully like spring. When I got there, I noticed bits of green popping up all around. Mainly, the Boxelder trees had green leaf buds and little fuzzy flower-like shoots coming out from the leafy areas. The American Elm trees had super tiny leaves emerging from some of the buds, and the Virginia Creeper on the fence to my left had some tiny leaf sprouts as well. The barberry on the ground was in full bloom with leaves covering all the branches. The river was also noticeably fuller than the last time I visited, due to the rain and snowmelt. Other than those phenological changes, my place has stayed relatively the same since when I first visited.

Some landmarks that I have grown familiar with are the bridge itself. Each time I visit my spot or run past it, I can feel the bridge moving under my weight. The Virginia creeper is also a landmark that helps me understand the passage of time at my spot. It grows quite fast, so each time I visit I check on it to see how much it has changed.

Culture and nature intertwine here through the means of recreation. I pass my spot quite frequently when I go for runs, so I’ve grown accustomed to visiting it for both school and personal reasons. A lot of people commute on the bike path, walk their dogs and run. Here, people connect with nature while being active. I’ve learned a big part of Vermont culture includes outdoor activity in nature, and the Burlington bike path is a great example of how the two intersect.

Because I end up passing my spot a lot, I do consider myself a part of this place. It feels nice to have spent time sitting on the bench there, observing the nature around me as the seasons change, while I also experience change throughout my first year of college. It feels like a familiar place I can come back to or run to. One of my classes last semester, nature and belonging, taught me about sit spots for meditation and feeling connected with the land around me, so this phenology site also ended up being a type of sit spot for me where I could sit and observe the land and feel connected.

During this four-day urban BioBlitz, I walked around the UVM campus and explored Oakledge Beach. I went to a place at Oakledge that I hadn’t been to before. It was to the left of the parking lot and had a little cove and rock outcropping.

Using iNaturalist was relatively easy. I took photos out and about and uploaded them later in the day. The suggestions about what species I saw seemed accurate as well.

I saw a pair of mallard ducks at Oakledge beach, multiple seagulls on the Redstone green, a European Larch that was starting to bud, one northern white cedar and a few lillies blooming outside. There was a crabapple tree blossoming on the green as well.

Something I found interesting about the reports coming in from other cities is how they are in different phenological stages than we are in Vermont. For example, in San Antonio metro area, the city with the most observations, most of the top identifications are flowers. This differs from Vermont right now, because there are not a lot of flowers out right now. Something else I noticed was the number of coastal observations and observations from the water. Trinidad has a lot of sightings from the surrounding oceans. There are a lot of different ecosystems that are being explored in this BioBlitz.

April 8th, 2025 —

Today was very cold and wintery for April. It was super windy, 31 degrees, and snowy throughout the day.

Red Oak – 615, White oak – 761, Red maple – 280, and Norway maple – 3261 had no breaking buds or any sign of emerging leaves. They all had little buds, but no bud breaking or any green yet. White oak, while it had no open buds, had old brown leaves from last year still attached to the branches. Sugar maple was the only tree we observed that had some breaking buds. We placed it in the category of 100-1,000 breaking buds, with it still very early in the process.

I took a look at the spring leaf index map on the NPN’s website. This shows how the date of the first spring leaves compares to the average. While the map did not quite reach up to Vermont yet, there was an interesting trend I found. Starting in the southern US, spring leaves came in around 20 days late, then moving further north because average, then 20 days early. Further north to that was another band of 20 days late, then average, then early. Based off this striped trend, Vermont might fall in the average for when the spring leaves arrive. This is relevant to the data I collected, because the spring has been so cold so far, it seems unlikely that the leaves will break early, but also, they are close. Climate change makes phenological changes more unpredictable because of the mismatch of phenological events due to the unnatural fluctuations occurring.

Keep Vermont Cool Sticker 🙂

OCTOBER 2nd, 2024 

My phenology place is a metal and wood bridge over a brook on the Burlington bike path behind Redstone Campus and the Burlington Country Club golf course. Today I arrived by bike, about 1.8 miles down the paved trail starting behind the track. The trail goes adjacent to Spear Street, then curves in before route 189. It gets woodsier as I approach the bridge. 

I chose this location because I have gone on runs on this trail before, and my favorite part was the woody part where the bridge is. The fall leaves are turning there, and it feels more secluded than being right alongside Spear Street. Also, the brook adds an additional element to the surrounding ecosystem that will be interesting to observe through the seasons. 

The vegetation around the path leading to the bridge is grassy, with Virginia Creeper, Barberry and Goldenrod growing wild near the fences that come right before the bridge as the land drops away down to the brook. Down low, near the water, the surrounding trees are all tall and coniferous, mostly consisting of large Eastern Hemlock. Closer to the bridge, on higher grounds, are smaller hardwood trees. These Boxelders, White Oaks, Poplars, Sugar Maples and a lot of Green Ash are arching over the start of the bridge, or growing on the edge between the path and the Hemlocks deeper in the woods. In this area are some smaller young Eastern White Pines as well.

Observed Plants (Observations · iNaturalist):

• Boxelder
• Green Ash (turning yellow for the beginning of fall)
• White Oak (all pretty small, under 6ft)
• Eastern Hemlocks (large)
• Paper Birch (small)
• Barberry
• Sugar Maple
• Poplar
• Eastern White Pine

OCTOBER 26th, 2024

Today I visited my phenology spot by running to it. When I got there, I sat on a bench, and I started to get cold because it’s getting close to November now. There were quite a few cars on the road behind me, which made it pretty loud, but I could still hear a few songbirds. Black-capped chickadees were the main birds I could hear, with the occasional blue jay sounding from the trees. Even though it was only about 3pm, the sun still shone low through the trees, giving it a late afternoon look. The most common colors I saw were green, yellow and brown, from the leaves and grass around me.

Vegetation-wise, the main difference from last time was the lack of leaves on trees, and the amount on the ground. All of the Green Ash had lost their leaves, and most of the red maple too. The red maple trees had a lot of brown fallen leaves surrounding them and on the grass around me. The Poplar trees and paper birches still had lots of yellow leaves that were quaking in the breeze. All of the Virginia creeper was dead, leaving the fences to be covered in brown vines.

At Home Phenology Post:

For Thanksgiving break I headed home to Gardiner, NY. In the front of my house, I have a little pond, which I chose as my phenology place. This sunny Monday morning I walked out there to observe my surroundings. Right now, the pond is extremely low, the lowest I’ve ever seen it. The drought in New York has left it to look like a muddy puddle. Something interesting I saw was interesting patterns cut into a planted paper birch, likely done by a sapsucker.

Compared to my spot in Burlington, this place is much more manicured. It is surrounded by grass and rocks that were placed there by whoever built the pond. It is much more man-made than the forest surrounding the bridge on the Burlington bike path. To my left is a massive Pin Oak, the tallest tree by my house. To my right is a grove of planted Spruce trees. In front of me, before the water, is a lot of brown reeds sticking out of the mud. It’s much quieter here compared to my spot in Burlington, and I can hear the birds a lot clearer. One bird that really drew my attention was the Northern Cardinal singing loudly. While both of my places have a water source, this one is man-made compared to the flowing stream in Burlington. And in my other spot, I saw a much broader variety of trees and natural woodland.

December at my phenology place (12/4/2024)

Unlike the other months at the Burlington bike path bridge, this time there was a dusting of snow on the ground. The snow was on the bridge and grass around the path, and on the path in patches. There was evidence of other bikers, walkers and dogs traveling on the path after the snow based on their tracks on the bridge. Other than that, I did not see any prints of other animals in the woods along the side of the trail. In fact, the only wildlife I noticed was the Tufted Titmice twittering in the trees above.

Compared to my last time visiting this spot, there were a lot less leaves. The only thing clinging to the branches of the trees around me were a few curled up White Oak leaves. All the other leaves were buried under some snow and starting to fall apart and decompose. I saw some red Barberry fruits hanging on to empty branches low on the ground too.

The road behind me seemed to be louder than I remembered it as well. This could be due to the lack of leaves on the trees in between me and the road, so the noise isn’t softened or blocked. This noise pollution probably is one of the reasons I didn’t see many signs of wildlife too.

Overall, I enjoyed my phenology place because it gave me a chance to get out in nature and get to know a place well in all conditions. This location was fun to access by biking and running, and I got to go there in hot weather, peak foliage, and now snow. I enjoyed getting to know the trees there and the interesting landscape. My spot had both forest and a stream that changed a lot through the seasons, and it was always fun to see how each micro-landscape within my location acted differently through time.

NR 1020 Phenology Blog Continued

January 23rd, 2025

It has been very cold in Burlington for the past week, and I biked on the snowy path to my phenology place in below freezing temperatures. For the most part, it looked quite similar to when I was here in early December. There was a layer of snow on the ground and on the bridge. This time the stream was much more frozen over and had some sort of animal tracks on it. Maybe the animals went down there to cross or to look for running water to drink.

Right alongside the paved path there were a lot of dog and human tracks as they strayed from the path. There was also a small animal that left tracks in the snow, as well as a bigger one that was hard to read because it was old.

Lastly, there was a vine that was touching the snow, and left interesting marks as it got blown around in the wind.

Wildlife Signs in Burlington

Me and Quisha decided to adventure down to North Beach by running on this gorgeous bluebird day. We got to the beach and mostly saw human tracks on foot, snowshoes and Nordic skis, accompanied by many dog prints.

We ventured up to the woods near the entrance to the rock point trail where the snow was deeper and less windblown. Here we saw some interesting tracks, mainly grey squirrels judging by their habit of running up trees in their path. We also saw tracks of a really small animal that was walking on top of the snow, up to a fallen tree poking out of the snow. Based off the size of the tracks and narrow straddle, I am guessing that it was a shrew.

Most of the animals seemed to stay away from the shore, avoiding the ice and exposed terrain. Most of the tracks were found in the woods and seemed to be on the older side with not super clear definition.

Down in the water in a part that wasn’t iced over, three mallard ducks were floating and dipping in the water to catch food.