On a windy, cool October day, I made the journey to The Salmon Hole on the Winooski River to begin my first phenology assignment assessment. As I walked on the main path, I encountered a wide variety of tree and shrub species, such as white oaks, northern red oaks, Norway maples, and honeysuckle, with occasional birch and pine trees popping up. I eventually reached an opening that had clearly been utilized by beavers to build dams, as the area was nearly completely cleared, and only left with dozens of gnawed tree stumps.
Besides the trees mentioned above, I also found a couple white/European ashes, common buckthorn, and several decaying elm trees. As for vegetation, oriental bittersweet and honeysuckle were the most noticeable shrubs in the area, however, there was also Lesser Burdock, Broad-Leaved Golden Rod, Purple Flowered Rasbery, and New York Ferns. I also found an abundance of Silky Rosegill Mushrooms, and some other unidentifiable fungi growing on the ground and logs.
I only encountered one bird species during my assessment, of which I believe was a Redhead Duck. I hope to also see how the landscape might change as beavers begin to move further inwards on the land to reach more trees to build their dams. I look forward to seeing more fungi growth in the coming weeks as mushroom season reaches its peak.
