When I went to visit my phenology spot almost all of the leaves had fallen from the trees. I noticed that the coniferous trees such as the Eastern white pines still had all of their pine needles. This is because the pine needles do not fall off as easy as they are smaller and have less surface area that would get covered if frozen when compared to a deciduous tree. Other than the Eastern white pine trees, there were two other tree species that still had some leaves left on them. There is a young red oak that still had leaves left on it and its leaves were brown and curled. The other tree was the Norway maple tree. The leaves on the Norway maple were yellowish and droopy.
The ferns that dominated the understory are still persistent but they were flattened due to the snow cover and the leaf litter. The barberry also still had some berries left. All of the leaves on the barberry had fallen off but some berries are still present.
The leaf litter has increased and most of it is currently covered in a thin layer of snow. The leaf litter had mainly deciduous leaves but there were a few pine needles from the Eastern white pines. There was decomposition occurring as there was lots of dead organic matter being broken down on the ground. Some of the trail was also frozen on the walk over to my spot and there were some spots that had a thick layer of mud under the ice.
While at my spot I saw a few squirrels running around and a lot of crows in flying above the trees. I did find some animal tracks on a log at my spot which I think are squirrel tracks. The animal activity has decreased a little as in the past I noticed there were more birds other than crows but otherwise the animal activity has remained mostly the same.
As we are finishing up the semester I wanted to say that I have gained a great amount of knowledge from this class and from being out in Centennial Woods for this project. I have a deep appreciation for nature and being able to build a relationship to a place has broadened my understandings of nature and how everything works as a system. I really enjoyed the observing the ferns at my spot as they have been surviving through everything so far and I also enjoyed the diversity at my spot. There are lots of deciduous trees at my spot but right at the edge of my area there are coniferous trees that I included as they can show a comparison to how different types of trees are adapting to the different seasons. I can’t wait for next semester to continue observing the phenology of an area. 🙂