Over break I spent some time in the woods near my house in Holliston Massachusetts. It’s pretty quiet and a very peaceful place. I usually walk or skateboard there depending on the weather. It’s a good place to relax or ground myself if I’m feeling overwhelmed. Since I don’t live on a busy main road, there isn’t as much of the typical noise pollution from cars/busses/trains you might hear around the Burlington area, and I definitely didn’t encounter as many people as I would walking to my phenology spot here.

In the spot I chose this past week there were mostly Norway maple and Eastern white pine trees. The pines looked to be mature and the maples were still in the relatively young growth phase. In the winter, branches of the pines fall all the time with the weight of the snow and wind. My phenology spot in Centennial had much more variance in the tree types such as sugar maples and red maples. It also had more of a notable understory, whereas my location over break had minimal shrubs, although if I do recall correctly there is some cabbage further into the woods.

I noted a few squirrels and birds in both places and while I didn’t see any while I visited this week, I do know there have been deer and coyotes in parts of the area before. While it was a bit warmer in Massachusetts, we did still get a dusting of snow over the past weekend.