For break, I went home with my family to enjoy thanksgiving. Here is the lovely satellite image!
Here is why I find this location to be very special
- Large rocks are neatly stacked by what looks to be decades since it was settled on! Likely due to the hill-like nature of the mountain area, this land was built to give a flat surface for other human uses.
- A majority of the trees were without leaves and dead but from what I could tell of the bark a large portion of them were sugar maples, paper birch, and spruce!
- Here are some 40+ feet tall sugar maples that I found in our backyard!
- I also noticed that on the side of the yard with more sun there was moss and clovers growing on the ground instead of grass! I’m unsure if this was purely a natural occurrence or whether this was done on purpose. As well as moss growing on the side of rocks and trees alike.
One thing I find interesting is that there is a noticeable difference in the amount of animal species in my new location, especially bird species. In Burlington, the biodiversity of animals isn’t quite as high as it is in more rural areas like this one. One consistent bird I see here a lot throughout the seasons is the crow! I’ve seen whole murders of them before during the spring.
Both of these phenology sites have a human impact on it on the daily, with Burlington having frequent cars, people, and noise pollution. In this new site, we have the same human impacts but on a much smaller scale, it is a very drastic difference surprisingly. There are many more animals you see actively here such as foxes, deers, more rodents, and even bears! I think the biggest issue in this neighborhood however is the loss of habitat, as I’ve lived here I have also noticed the clearing of plots of land for houses which tends to have a large impact on such remote places.