I have decided to change the location of my phenology spot for the new semester from Crescent Woods to Centennial Woods because I did not see many signs of animals at Crescent and was concerned about being able to find tracks there this semester. To get to my spot from Aiken, go out heading east until you get to Carrigan Drive and follow that across the intersection for about 6 minutes until reaching the entrance sign for Centennial woods. In the woods, I followed the path down and across the bridges until I was on the other side of the wetlands. I turned left and walked for 3-4 minutes along the wetland to where there is another bridge and a stream comes into the marsh. At the intersection between the stream and the marsh, there is a fallen tree that is a perfect sitting spot for my phenology spot. Some of my pictures from my spot and map are shown below.
I saw many tracks along the way to my phenology spot including grey squirrel and mouse (first picture below). The mouse trail had segments of it where it went into the subnivean level and came back up again to the surface. At my spot, the best tracks I found were those of a deer (second picture). The prints of the deer spanned most of the length of the wetland at Centennial and the biggest significant event with the prints occurs in the third picture below. I noticed the prints in a grouping, not a typical diagonal walking pattern, with some ice chunks displaced. It looked as if it stepped on the ice, broke through, and tried to get off of that area onto solid ground as soon as it could. My hypothesis was confirmed when I stepped on the ice and broke through, just as the deer likely did.
Some deciduous trees located around my new phenology spot include both Northern Red Oak, Sugar Maple (second picture and drawing), Red Maple, Norway Maple, American Beech (first picture), and Ash. I found a bud of a tree I could not identify from our focal species list, but later researched it to be a butternut tree (not pictured).
