November 2, 2022
Blog Post #2
︵‿︵‿୨♡୧‿︵‿︵
✩ Description ✩
╰┈➤ Today, between classes at 2 PM, I walked to my phenology spot and climbed the large mushroom log in the middle of my spot to do my observations. The main thing I noticed after being on campus all week (especially after Halloweekend) was the silence. My spot is far enough away that I can’t hear the stream, the campus, or the road, so the only noises are barking dogs from the houses up the hills, birds, and leaves falling on crunchy leaf litter. Said leaves were mostly red and sugar maples and pine needles, although stick season is not yet in full swing in my spot. The red maple leaves are a bright canary yellow and actively falling, which exposes the Eastern White Pines in the overstory and gives the ferns and buckthorns of the understory more sunlight. When perched on the large log, there is an undercurrent of the smell of moist rot from the dead tree, which almost makes you wary of sitting on it. There were also almost double the amount of mushrooms on the side of the log (Figure 2), but they seem to be cracking (Figure 1), maybe because of the colder temperatures. Next time I go to the forest, I’d like to have iNaturalist installed on my phone so I can see what type of mushrooms these are!
✩ Birds-Eye Map ✩
✩ represents sit spot
✩ Changes I’ve Noticed ✩
╰┈➤ The changes in my spot are not as stark as those around campus because of the forest composition which is mainly Red and Sugar Maples, Paper Birch, ferns, and Eastern White Pine, which don’t drop their leaves as readily as the surrounding oaks. There is a smattering of yellowing maple leaves on the ground covering the already fallen pine needles, which both weren’t as present the last time I visited. Also, the mushrooms that I was so excited to monitor seem to be growing more readily, but they will probably start to shy away from the colder temperature soon.
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