A UVM blog McKenzie Park Riverside Phenology

During my final trip to the Intervale this semester, I was welcomed into Mckenzie Park by this curious garter snake. After studying each other for a couple of minutes, we both went on our ways.

I walked further alongside the Winooski River, noting the plethora of new life that has only arisen in the past few weeks. Using iNaturalist, I was able to identify these mushrooms as the Dryad’s Saddle mushrooms, due to the appearance of shingles on the fungi’s surface, as well as the squishy pores present beneath the caps.

As Spring is in full bloom, I was able to witness the flourishing plants of the Winooski River floodplain. While poison ivy seems to run rampant throughout this forest, keystone plant species including ostrich fern still dominate much of the forest floor.

Large tree species like the Silver Maple make up much of Mckenzie Park’s plant life, although buckthorn is often seen invading the space of these key species.

During my trip to Mckenzie, I was lucky to have witnessed a variety of active migratory birds. I saw three communing goldfinches, as well as two pairs of Baltimore orioles. I was lucky enough to get a number of great shots (for an iPhone) of these birds searching for nourishment.

As I walked through the woods, I couldn’t help but appreciate this place’s natural beauty, even though it is still extremely impacted by human activity. Our impact is definitely felt by the natural workings of this ecosystem, as agriculture and urban runoff often destabilize the banks of the Winooski River, while negatively impacting the river’s overall water quality. Even my own presence in this ecosystem is felt by numerous forms of life, so I must be mindful of the path I walk.

As I passed by flourishing fields of kale and other vegetables, I couldn’t help but recognize how much we depend on the natural processes that occur here, to bring nourishment and livelihood to our own kind. Like any living being, we as humans depend on nature and other life, so that we can carry on our own fulfilling lives.

The truth is that we are all individual pieces of one whole ecosystem. So, it is paramount that we work together for the betterment of all that we depend on, and all that depends on us.

I went out to Burlington’s Arms Forest last Monday afternoon, to see what species I could find before the City Nature Challenge came to a close. The highlight of my stroll came at the very beginning, as I was welcomed into the forest with the rapid, high-pitched call of the pileated woodpecker. I saw the grouse-sized bird searching for something on the forest floor from afar. I watched it hop around, picking at leaves and possibly looking for grubs, its striking red crown bobbing in and out of sight. I tried to get a closer look, but the pileated woodpecker flew off, parallel to the trail ahead, and just barely in sight.

I continued on and was quickly greeted by a similar but smaller bird, the hairy woodpecker. At that moment, I was fumbling with my phone, trying to get a half-decent picture of the pileated woodpecker, when this new specimen caught my eye. But, he left as quickly as he came, and I was lucky to get the photo of him that I did.

My mission then turned into getting a snapshot of the trickster pileated woodpecker, after I posted my shot of its decoy onto iNaturalist. I spotted it high up the trunk of what was probably an Eastern Hemlock, noticing the impressive stature of this particular bird. In trying to get a clear picture, I scared it off further into the woods. For the rest of my walk, the pileated woodpecker periodically mocked my amateur efforts with its distinct, echoing call. Fortunately, the flourishing of springtime shifted my focus to the fiddleheads popping up along the trail, the soon-to-be ripe skunk cabbage growing streamside, and a number of unique trees that populated this forest.

Though trying to take a good picture to post to iNaturalist had its difficulties, I appreciated the accuracy with which iNaturalist suggested species identifications. Taking part in this challenge also gave me a reminder of the appreciation I have for the worldwide community of wildlife enthusiasts, and it showed me just how easy it is for me to learn and get involved. It was also very cool to see the common plants and animals in other parts of the world, and how climate, geography, and time can create such beautiful variation on this planet.

Just like the rest of Burlington, the snow at McKenzie Park melted weeks ago. The trails were a bit muddy because of rain earlier in the week, so I was hoping I could spot some animal tracks in the mud. However, I was reminded of how many dogs romp around in the park, so I took my focus on animal tracks to the riverside instead.

Before I arrived at the beach though, I observed how the recent rain had affected McKenzie’s newly blooming vegetation. Most of the forest was made up of bare trees, however, buds had formed at the ends of many of them. I clipped three different buds from trees to observe in a vase over 10 days. Looking off into the distance, many of the trees gave off slightly tinted shades of yellow and green, due to the photosynthetic organs on these plants that were finally sprouting this time of the year. This created a beautiful mosaic amongst the bland brown masses of sticks if one looked hard enough.

Down by the river, there was a lot of activity in the sand. Dog and human footprints often blurred what could be read about the riparian wildlife, but plenty of footprints from other sources could still be spotted. What really caught my eye was the very clear human-infant-looking tracks along the beach. They traveled perpendicular to the river, and at a consistent distance from the river as far as I could feasibly observe. My prediction is that a raccoon (or possibly a possum) was scouring the riverside for potential sources of food, likely frogs or fish.

As I walked along, I startled a frog and some minnows, and witnessed a fish jump out of the water. Soon after, a few ducks flew to the general area of the splash. As I was leaving McKenzie, I got a couple of good shots of the local pollinators. Bees were working on an early-blooming bushy plant, while a butterfly sipped the plant’s nectar.

I strolled down Main Street with a friend on an overcast afternoon in early March. The temperatures had risen to the high twenties, and much of February’s gifts began to thaw. The grass peeked out from beneath a layer of frost in some places, and we witnessed a large flock of birds taking advantage of this. They looked to be robins mixed in with some darker birds, and they traveled from tree to grass-patch to tree, picking out what food they could along the way.

We continued down through Church Street, towards the waterfront at Lake Champlain. Human activity was at a lull this drab Wednesday afternoon, so constant chirps could be heard if one listened intently. Down at the waterfront, other sounds intrigued my ears.

The recent thaw showed up in the ice formations on edge of the lake. The frozen layer had broken up into smaller, barstool-sized chunks. As waves rolled along, the ice chunks undulated with the water, creating a beautiful slushy-sounding tempo at the edge of the lake. A duck paddled along further out, where space in between the ice chunks allowed for unruffled travel.

I poked around the brambles in between the bike path and the water, finding an assortment of wild tracks among human and dog prints. It’s likely that I found cottontail rabbit, due to form of the tracks and the hopping behavior I observed in the snow. I found some other, very strange prints in the snow. My best guess is a snowshoe, maybe the person, maybe the hare. Based on the strange form of the tracks, it very well could’ve been a person, but still, the hopping motion can be observed, and the tracks are all very compact and circular in their shape. A large hare could make that kind of shape hopping through fresh snow.

Spring still has not yet arrived, as the majority of Burlington’s plants have not yet budded. Despite this, non-human life still seems very much out-and-about as we await the warmer temperatures of Spring.

I walked back to McKenzie Park on the Rena Calkins trail, alongside the Winooski River, searching for potential signs of wild activity. The first week of the semester was marked by a bundle of snowstorms followed by several days of bone-chilling wind, creating a hard crust over the snow which was covered by uneven patches of light, windswept snow. Not many tracks appeared distinctly, and dogs roamed these woods frequently, though I was still able to make some speculations on wildlife in the area.

This was one of the more distinct, small tracks I found, most likely belonging to a gray squirrel. Tracks like these darted across the trail and into clumps of brush, where the small rodents found shelter or food. They may also have been taking cover from predators, such as foxes or coyotes. I found fecal evidence of these predators along the trail. With the long hairs sticking out from the irregularly-shaped, bulbous pieces of scat, I guessed the animal was either a gray or a red fox.

I walked against gusts of wind, past large, lifeless sticks coming up from the barren crust. The woods felt almost lonely with the lack of leaves on vegetation, and the absence of moving water where the Winooski River was buried under the snow made the place feel dead in some strange way. But certain clues in the snow gave proof of the hard-headed drudgery of life that operates during the bleakness of the cold season. Above me, a bald eagle stretched its wings wide, displaying the piercing beauty of a life dependent on deciphering forms in the snow.

As I sit bundled up at my desk at home, I’m fully protected from the first Nor’easter of the season. Without my insulated house, wool socks, and a home-cooked meal on the way, I would be nothing in the face of this winter storm.

Life at McKenzie Park is also braving the big storm. Luckily for them, adaptations over thousands of years have allowed flora and fauna the resilience to withstand the elements year after year. While some animals have spent months scavenging for sustenance to survive the cold months, others will enjoy hunting their fattened prey through tunnels beneath the snow. Deciduous trees will have already shed their foliage, working to minimize the damage caused by storms like these, and conserve energy throughout the winter. The temperature of the Winooski will drop, and parts of the river may even freeze over, compelling fish to rest on the bottom for the season, where the water will be marginally warmer.

Although the wildlife at McKenzie has found ways to adapt to seasonal changes, the land-use history of this area; our impact from centuries ago to this day; often challenged the wellbeing of Burlington’s natural areas.

Being the original highway and grocery store in Burlington, the Winooski River provided support to the native Abenaki’s of Vermont. It was used as a means of travel to Lake Champlain and was often appreciated by the Abenaki for its fresh fish and fertile topsoil provided to the surrounding floodplain. Once respected as a vital resource by the Abenaki, the Winooski River, and adjacent land was left damaged after the land’s conquest by European colonists. Following the colonists’ arrival, massive deforestation took place, uprooting the vitality of this natural area by fragmenting habitats and harvesting large arrays of nutrient-depleting crops. This sudden change in the land composition marked catastrophe; much of the land’s topsoil was eroded, displaced into the Winooski, and deposited elsewhere, changing the layout of the land entirely. From this deposition of sediments formed McKenzie Park, among other features along the river.

As we work towards developing a more holistic relationship with the land, it’s important to consider how drastically we’ve altered the landscape in the past. Through the regeneration of the floodplain forest, which takes place alongside sustainable agricultural practices, we aid in the land’s ability to eventually heal itself. We will always have a valued relationship with this land, and it’s important to realize the role we play in maintaining its wellbeing, as we look forward to a greener spring.

Citations:

Beckett, S., & Ford, S. (2016, December 3). McKenzie Park. https://enjoyburlington.com/mckenzie-parkland/.

Berrizbeitia, I. Focal Places in Burlington. Burlington Geographic. https://www.uvm.edu/place/burlingtongeographic/focalplaces/intervale.php.

For my at-home phenology spot, I ventured to one of my favorite places in the world, Newfound Lake. I chose a site by the water at Camp Onaway, about a fifteen minute walk from my house, or five minute paddle by kayak.

On this brisk Sunday afternoon, I stepped through the entrance to the girl’s camp. Entering a cathedral of hemlocks, bird songs accompanied my footsteps as the only noise throughout the forest. Past the hemlocks, I saw an array of eastern white pines, and various paper and yellow birches throughout the woods. I saw evidence of herbivory as well; chewed up pinecones littered the forest floor, and their consumers could be heard rustling among fallen leaves, preparing for the cold.

I arrived at my spot — the familiar granite slab with its lone pine sapling marked the divide between the forest and the lake’s grandiose beauty. At sunset, cotton candy skies reflected off of miles of glassy water, which will begin to freeze within weeks as winter approaches. Marveling over the same view I’ve marveled over hundreds of times, I watch a bald eagle take off flying across the lake to Paradise Point, landing on an immense white pine.

As I moved around a lot in high school, the lake was the constant that never failed to give me a feeling of “home.” I find that this feeling coincides with the natural beauty of Newfound, and my appreciation for the natural processes that allow for this beauty to exist. I’m not sure whether McKenzie Park elicits this “home” feeling in me, but I feel the same peace in my chest when I sit on that river bank and take in the world. The natural processes of these spots differ, yet what is found at both spots proves nature invaluable.

After the season’s first snow earlier in the week, the temperature shifted to back to the mid 60’s. Salvaging the season’s last warmth before winter comes to stay, I biked to McKenzie Park where I witnessed the area’s seasonal changes from two weeks ago. Almost all trees had shed their leaves, and the few leaves still present had all turned yellow or brown. I witnessed a flock of birds likely migrating south, to find warmer climates for the winter. Squirrels and rabbits ran around, collecting food to fatten up for the winter. The groundcover in the floodplain forest and along the beach remains green.

Visiting my phenology spot in McKenzie Park again after two weeks, I noticed how quickly fall is turning over to winter. Many of the trees in the Silver Maple Ostrich Fern Floodplain Forest have shed their leaves, including the cottonwood and boxelder trees. The silver maple’s leaves have all turned a bright yellow, indicative of the changing seasons. The milkweed seedpods I observed last time have all turned brown and released their seeds. The Winooski’s water level was slightly lower than before, maybe because it rained hard before I came last time.

I also saw signs of wildlife that inhabits the floodplain. Making my way down to the river, I saw a cardinal take off and I continued to observe birds flying overhead the rest of the time I was there. Rodents rustled up and down the canopy nonstop. As I was leaving, I passed a small pile of scat that gave me hope that I may one day encounter an animal larger than a squirrel or bird at McKenzie Park.

Citations:

Beckett, S., & Ford, S. (2016, December 3). McKenzie Park. https://enjoyburlington.com/mckenzie-parkland/.

After a Sunday full of calc homework, I biked to McKenzie Park while the sun was setting, hoping I could get a few good pictures in before it got completely dark. It was basically a straight shot from Redstone, past the University Green, and downhill to a dirt road that I rode on for about ten minutes before I got to McKenzie Park.

As I arrived at the park, the last bit of sunlight illuminated a grassy expanse of milkweed. I made my way to the Winooski, where I almost fell into the water as I slid down the bank at the edge of the river. A startled frog hopped into the water. I sat on the edge and listened to what seemed like a couple of loons down the river. I later walked farther down the bank, observing a variety of bushy, grassy plants including wood nettle, jewelweed, and the invasive Japanese knotweed. I stopped to eat some wild grapes before I made my way back up the bank.

I promised myself to visit during the daytime next time I’m over there so that I can identify more of the vegetation in the area. I was glad to be there just after the sunset though, just because of the beauty and the tranquility of the night’s fading light.

Citations:

Beckett, S., & Ford, S. (2016, December 3). McKenzie Park. https://enjoyburlington.com/mckenzie-parkland/.