This week I was able to see my spot covered in about 8 inches of snow for the first time this year. I was excited to see that there were some animal tracks that were made easily visible in the snow.
I suspect the tracks to come from either a rabbit or a squirrel but since the snow was pretty deep and the tracks were old, it was tough to tell. The only animals Ive observed in my spot are squirrels and birds, hopefully I can get a better idea of the fauna in my area throughout the year.
As I continued on towards the stream, I took note of the plants that surrounded me. All the underbrush and shrubbery that is usually thriving in the small patch of woods was gone, and all that remained was a blanket of snow across the forest floor. If you take note of my earlier posts, you know that I have been noting the abbundancy of pine sapplings in the area. While there were about 5 to 10 sapplings the last time I visited there was one singular plant today. I suspect the reason for this is people coming into the area and removing them to have makeshift Christmas trees but this is only a speculation.
Next, and most importantly, I wanted to observe the quality of the stream, especially considering the high amount of snow weve been getting lately. The stream looked better than usual. The water was clear as always, but the duckweed that usually flows through the stream was gone. This is likely because of the drop in temperature which the algae is unable to thrive in. Another reason for this may also be the high amount of salt in the water since the stream is drainage for a large portion of UVM’s roads.
Hopefully at some point I will be able to use actual measurements and experiments to tell me a little more about my phenology spot. Thanks so much for stopping in this week. See ya’ later (: