Centennial Woods Phenology Blog

My phenological site has changed over time. I’ve seen the leaves on the trees change color, fall, and start to blossom again. It’s amazing to look at the same tree over many months and see its leaves life cycles. I never noticed a huge human-caused change. A major landmark I have become familiar with is the stream that flows through Centennial right past my spot. Nature and culture intertwine here, I’ve seen people walking their dogs through my spot, classes hiking past, and leisure walks. This forest is a staple for UVM students as well as Burlington residents. I would consider myself a part of my place because I frequently visit it and spend time with the wildlife.

This week it was warmer than my last visit so there were signs of budding on my tree, but there are no leaves yet or flowering.

This week, I revisited my paper birch (Betula Papyrifera) tree. Once again, the tree had no evidence of flowering. I couldn’t see any branches low enough to tell if there was budding, but some of the nearby trees had budding. I hypothesize that at my next visit, it will have started to bud, because by then it will have been spring for awhile.

At this visit to my phenology site I found a paper birch (Betula Papyrifera). This tree had no evidence of flowering and is often mistaken for its winter lookalikes, gray birch, yellow birch, and river birch. I knew that this tree was a paper birch because of its thin paper like bark that peels.

I went into Centennial Woods to look for tracks this week, because I wanted to explore it with my new knowledge of tracking. I encountered a cottontail rabbit trail, white-tailed deer, grey fox trail, and a bitten out tree trunk from a beaver. I uploaded the pictures below to INaturalist. I had trouble identifying the last track because the foot was so long and narrow, but I narrowed it down to a grey fox because of the large gap between the bottom of the foot and the toes. I said grey fox instead of red fox because the toes were closer together.

This visit to Centennial Woods made me notice a lot of phenological changes, most prominent being the snow cover. The bushes I had once seen were covered with fallen snow, as was the ground. The stream wasn’t fully frozen like I had expected, because it was a sunny day with blue skies. As for signs of wildlife, I saw a few tracks that might be from a rabbit, but they were probably human footprints.

The leaves in this spot have all fallen and are crunched up on the ground. There are still some ground cover ferns, but not many. It had just rained so the dirt was wet and I saw dog footprints, but no traces of wild species. The animal activity increased, I saw a squirrel.

I enjoyed seeing how my phenology spot changed throughout these few weeks. it was interesting to notice that most things stayed the same, the vegetation just wore down as it got colder.

Over Thanksgiving break, I went on a long walk through the metro parks near my house. There was significantly less vegetation than at my phenology spot in Centennial Woods. At Sulphur Springs, there are hickory, sugar maple, American beech, and small waterfalls.

Today I sat in the center of my phenology spot for 15 minutes and used my senses to get to know the area. I closed my eyes and heard a few birds but not that many because it’s getting colder out. I saw a variety of tree species (shown below), and I even noticed ferns growing alongside the stream. I still did not see any wildlife.

Welcome to my phenology blog for Centennial Woods! My spot is a little ways in from the start of the trails, it’s a stream located next to a wooden walkway. I chose this spot because I remember coming here for the first lab and passing this stream, I thought it was beautiful and liked the vegetation surrounding the area. There is an abundance of shrubs and bushes like buckthorn plants. Most of the leaves have fallen at this point, and they cover the grassy shrubs that surround the water. I also noticed that it was very muddy on the land right by the water.

Most common woody plants: Sugar Maple, Yellow Birch, Buckthorn