I never expected to be home for my spring semester of college. This change was something I wasn’t really ready for. I feel as if my mind and body were not prepared to come home to Poughkeepsie, New York. My new phenology spot for the time being is my front yard, due to restrictions from COVID-19, we are being advised to stay inside and limit our contact with other human beings as much as possible.
Since leaving UVM, I’ve realized that the weather here in Poughkeepsie is quite different than Burlington. I came home prepared to wear a winter jacket constantly, but Mother Nature had different plans. Last week the weather was very nice. The sun was shining for most of the week and the temperature was in the high 60’s. I noticed how the grass is no longer an ugly brown color, but it is beginning to turn a bright green again. Since being home I’ve had the opportunity to watch the sunrise in the morning. I’ve been taking note of the birds singing their songs early in the morning. I even got to experience two cardinals continually flying into our front windows of our living room. I did some research about this and found that the bird sees their reflection in the window and thinks it’s another bird. The bird then feels threatened thinking another bird is invading their territory. This was probably the most exciting thing I’ve seen during my quarantine. Even though this wonderful spring time weather was exciting, Mother Nature decided to surprise us again.
This week began with a dusting of snow which was quite unusual. According to my parents, there hasn’t been much snow this past winter due to the high temperatures in New York. This unusual snowfall was followed by days of rain which melted all the snow. The temperature this week has been between 30 degrees and 60 degrees. Although the rain made it hard to enjoy going outside, the rain has caused some flowers to bloom in my front yard. My yard also has some eastern white pine trees. As I informed my dad about what types of trees in the yard, I had to explain how the pine needles are acidic which is a reason why the grass has trouble growing where all the needles have fallen.
March 19th marked the spring equinox. I am excited to see the changes going into the spring season. Soon the trees will bud, the flowers will grow, and I will begin to see more animals such as squirrels and chipmunks roam our yard.
