My Uncles Cabin In The Woods
I arrived at my uncles cabin in the early afternoon as the sun was just beginning to fall behind the highest branches of the barren Norther Red Oaks and Red Maples that surrounded the clearing. It was a crisp 20 degrees and dropping fast, but the squirrels and chickadees didn’t seem to care. Hopefully the deer wouldn’t either. I had been playing in these woods for all my life but only recently has I started hunting in them with my uncle. We quietly slipped into the woods and headed for our hunting spot. As I hiked to my tree stand the woods fell quiet , the only sounds were the deafening crunch of leaves under my boot and the whistle of the cold wind which bit into my skin like tiny knives. As I reached my tree stand I grabbed onto the little pegs that were screwed into the old oak and climbed to a small platform suspended 30 feet above the forest floor. This is where I would spend the next three hours, observing the forest, waiting. Once I stopped moving, the first thing to hit me was the silence followed quickly by the cold. It felt like the whole forest was holding its breath. Slowly, the forest began to move again. The birds started chirping, the squirrels continued to rummage through the leaves, and in the distance the crows resumed their chorus of caws. The woods were once again full of life, only this time I was a part of it.
My uncle’s brother at the property with the deer he harvested for Thanksgiving dinner and some pictures of the property from when I was younger.
I chose the forest that I hunt in Connecticut with my family as my phenology site because I knew that I would be spending a lot of time over break there. Its also a place that has been a part of my family almost my entire life and where I got really interested in the outdoors. The biggest difference between this phenology site and my Salmon Hole phenology site is the watershed of each area. At my uncles cabin, there is a mixture of small brooks which flow year round and vernal pools which fill up with water in the summer time and dry up in the fall and winter. All of these flow into Lake Poacatapaug. On the other hand, Salmon Hole is made up of the Winooski river which is the congregation point of multiple rivers and streams. While both locations have an abundance of water, Salmon Hole has much greater amount and this impacts both the wildlife and the plant life present. In both locations the majority of plant life are deciduous trees and shrubs. However, in my time that I’ve spent at both sites, I’ve noticed that in comparison there are more large hardwoods present at my uncles cabin then at Salmon Hole, I believe that this is due largely in part to the periodical flooding of the Winooski that Salmon Hole experiences. In the woods of my uncles property, one of the most common hardwoods is the Northern Red Oak. This abundance of oaks creates excellent habitat for deer as acorns are a favorite food of theirs. What really surprised me was how barren of leaves the trees were compared to Burlington, in fact there were hardly any left. Despite their differences, both locations are meaning to me and it was really nice to reconnect with this place and my family over break.
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