Phenology Walk!
I went to collect data on April 6. Generally, there were no buds breaking, but there were a few trees with flowers starting. The red oak had started to flower, but the white oak was still holding onto its leaves from last year. The maples had not started flowering at all and their buds were closed. I liked doing this activity because I otherwise would not have really recognized that trees are starting to flower, indicating spring is closer to really coming. I also liked seeing the pattern between oaks and maples.
Looking at the NPN website, I was really interested by the pattern observed on the Spring Leaf Index Anomaly map. There were almost horizontal stripes of “20 days late,” “no difference,” and “20 days early” (in terms of the normal time for leaves to break) across the United States. It also indicates that while leaf break has not hit Vermont yet, it is making its way through New York. New York is highlighted as having earlier-than-usual leaf break this year, so I wonder what the normal time for Vermont is. I’m intrigued by what this pattern on the map stems from, and how it is being impacted by climate change. A lot of the North is seeing earlier than usual leaf break, so I think we will see that in Vermont. This can be tied to climate change as warming temperatures throw off phenological cycles across the country.