Salmon Hole- Lindsey Papasian

On Friday, May 6th I visited Salmon Hole one last time before the end of the semester. It was bittersweet since I’m now leaving and now the greenery is just returning to Salmon Hole. However, I was fortunate enough to get to see some of the plants come back on my final visit this year. This time I decided to visit with a friend, and we sat and had a little picnic and spent some time just sitting and watching at the Salmon Hole. On our visit some of the species I saw were Coltsfoot, Meadow Buttercup, Ostrich Fern, Field Horsetail and Dogwood. When I was walking by the shore of the river, I noticed some tracks that were going up and down the shore and I think that they look like Muskrat tracks, I have also seen Muskrat swim down at Salmon Hole before so it’s not unlikely that one has been roaming about. Yesterday when i was sitting there and looking around at my spot and noticing the natural features and also the industrial area that is very close by, I was thinking about the culture and the history of my place. I was thinking first about Indigenous usage of the land and how they would travel up and down the Winooski and what this land meant to them and then I was thinking about the industrialization of the area and the history of the Mills located nearby. There is a lot of culture as well as trauma attached to this place for many individuals. I feel like Salmon hole is a place that I’ve come to know well over this year, but I still am struggling with my sense of belonging there. I feel that it is the Indigenous Abenaki people that should be there and appreciating the land that is so incredibly significant to their culture.

On Saturday Morning I took a walk down to The Intervale Center to participate in the spectacular nature day and also take part in the Bio Blitz. At the Spectacular Nature Day I was able to log 10 species in inaturalist for the Bio blitz. Some of which include Painted Turtles, Bluebells, Garlic Mustard and Silver Maple. I also toured the different tables and got to partake in activities like planting Ostrich Ferns in order to fight the Goutweed that is spreading across the floodplain so rapidly. I really liked the “eat your invasives table” as well, and I got to try a Garlic Mustard spread, which tasted really good! I thought it was very cool to get to eat a species I found in nature on my own even though it was an invasive. I also learned Garlic mustard is abundant worldwide, and was one of the top-most logged species during the Bio Blitz. Events like the Bio Blitz are great because they get the community involved in nature and get people out and identifying species

I really enjoyed having my friends come with me to participate in both celebrations and being able to share time outside with them on such a beautiful day. It was also nice to introduce them to stuff that was important to me, for example, planting Fiddleheads and looking for species to log into the Bio Blitz on Inaturalist. My friends even downloaded the app themselves so they could help observe and ID species.

At the “Eat your Invasives” table they had both Knotweed Ice cream and Garlic Mustard spread. I really enjoyed trying both the ice cream and the spread, I thought the spread tasted like pesto and the knotweed to taste like artichokes. I also like speaking to the people at the table about where they sourced the Knotweed and Garlic Mustard, they picked it in a nearby floodplain.

I found this day and both celebrations/events to be very positive experiences and I really loved getting out in nature with my friends and doing something good for ourselves and our environment while also connecting with our community in Burlington both virtually while logging species on Inaturalist and in person when at the Spectacular Nature Day celebration. I would definitely participate in both again next year, and bring more friends!

   Over break I visited the local beach near my house called Crab Meadow. Crab meadow is a popular beach for families to go to and for people to bring dogs to as well. I saw lots of dog tracks in the sand as well as a few deer tracks. It was a warm day, and I was able to see different wildlife interact within my place. When walking across the sand towards grass marshes I saw a bunch of inch wide holes in the ground where you can usually find crabs. I saw 3 small crabs in the holes and was waiting so hopefully one would come out. I looked above and around me while I was walking away from the marsh and saw a seagull fly over my head which is pretty common since they are common birds and are also probably looking for crabs as well. While I was watching the bird was flying in place which I thought was odd since it wasn’t particularly windy and then I saw something drop for its beak, a crab. The seagull swooped down onto the crab and ate it. I found it super interesting to watch the predator and prey roles play out in front of me. Going back to my starting point I was able to see two Canada Geese wading in the water. One was upright while the other was dipping its head underwater searching for food. I came across some cactus on the way out which I found sort of strange, I did some looking up of the species of cactus and found it was an opuntia cactus which is also known as Prickly Pear Cactus, and they are native to North and South America. I enjoyed the time i spent getting to know this area I would definitely return!

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Map of Crab Meadow Beach.

Today, on this particularly warm Monday afternoon, I took a walk with a friend over to Centennial woods. It was a very pleasant day to be out and about, and the snow was nice and packable, which all made excellent conditions for some winter tracking. Walking around in centennial i noticed buds on the trees which are preparing for spring, a plethora of animal tracks, the stream was only partly frozen, and you could hear it babbling, and a sense of spring was in the air. I was surprised about the number of tracks my partner and I encountered down in centennial. I recall seeing what I think were cottontail rabbit, pacer tracks that I think were skunk, squirrel and a k-9 track that I suspect to be a coyote. It was really cool to see this diversity in tracks because I haven’t seen any coyote or pacer tracks yet and I found that super exciting. I would love to go back soon before the snow melts away.

pacer tracks! (Suspected skunk)

(Squirrel track?)

(Partially frozen brook)

(Witch’s butter fungus)

(Coyote track?)

I am glad to be returning to my phenology spot, Salmon Hole, once again this semester. I visited my location on Friday, January 28th. At the time I was there, around 11:30 it was snowing fairly hard and a lot of the tracks I saw, unfortunately were covered up, however I still witnessed a lot of changes at my site. Cold temperatures have frozen the small running streams that ran into the river. Snow has covered the grasses and mosses, and giant rock slabs now all blend together under the snowy blanket. It’s interesting how most the water is frozen with now atop it while the other part is still rapidly moving downstream.

^here is what the view from my spot was looking like on 1-28-22

^Compared to what it looked like on 12-11-2021

^here there were a bunch of tracks that are leading over what once was a creek. They are definitely mainly human but I thought perhaps some hares, otters, muskrats, fox etc. could be roaming down here as well.

I came across these tracks which aren’t super clear because of the snow but I believe that they are Fox tracks.

This is picture I took through binoculars which I thought was funny because the snow inside of the tree looks like a squirrel standing up.

Today was a relatively unusually warm day which made the walk down to salmon hole very nice. The downside to this warm weather was that there was no snow on the ground to look for animal tracks and scat in. Today a noticed a murder of crows in the trees and flying around and making noises. This could be a group of crows who are going to be roosting together for the winter. due to snow melt and rainfall, there was a couple of pretty active streams flowing into the Winooski River that were probably close to frozen a couple days ago. I also saw my first ever muskrat in the wild today. It was a warm day so that could account for why I saw one swimming past me, on a colder day even though they don’t hibernate they do tend to stay in their dens. While walking down to my spot I noticed an abundance of oak leaves on the ground that were decomposing. I’ve really enjoyed getting to know my phenology spot and feel like I’ve gotten to know the area a lot better over time. I will still continue to visit my spot since I really do enjoy going there.

Upon returning back to my hometown, Northport New York I decided that I wanted to have my new temporary phenology site be at Crab Meadow beach which is about 10 minutes from my house. I wanted to choose this spot as my phenology spot because it’s a significant place in my town for myself and everyone else living here. As kids we all used to play here at the beach and on the playground and it was nice to go back again and see that it really has not changed. In the summer usually I can see some snails, horseshoe crabs and little fish in the water but that day I only saw seaweed in the water. Next to the beach is a lot of marsh land which has grasses in it while the beach is pretty much only sand with the odd bush or tree here and there. There is a lot of seagulls at crab meadow and a lot of crabs. Crab Meadow is a popular spot for people to go in my town and there’s a restaurant down there as well, because of the amount of traffic there is some litter around from people eating dinner down there. Crab meadow is also a frequented fishing spot so it’s not uncommon to see fishing lines laying around which can be dangerous to the species living there. It was very nice to go back on a quiet day and spend some time there and remember some of the fun times I had there when I was a little younger.

today a classmate and I embarked on a journey down to the Winooski Bridge. It was a rainy walk down but the vibrant leaves on the trees (with leaves still remaining) stuck out against the gray skies. When we first started our walk down Colchester Ave. we saw this really beautiful and vibrant red bush that unfortunately we were unable to identify but wanted to stop and take a picture of it. Our first official stop however was the Greenmount cemetery. It was very peaceful and quite beautiful in the cemetery. We noted there was a lot of coniferous trees lining the cemetery and within we saw more deciduous trees. Most of the leaves had fallen off the trees, but right in the middle of the cemetery we saw an Linden tree with bright yellow leaves. Our next stop was the overlook above the Salmon hole, usually i would walk down to the Salmin hole but it was a bit muddy to climb down to the salmon hole itself. At the overlook we were able to see how the water was higher on the rocks than usual due to the precipitation (not as high as it was at my last blog though). At the overlook we saw a lot of Maple and Red Oak trees and their leaves were all over. At our final destination, the Winooski Bridge we got a good look at the dam and the river below. We were looking over the rock formations and the rapids in the Winooski river and I thought it was interesting how calm the water was in every part except for the one section where there are rapids. After our adventure I felt I had a fuller knowledge of the phenology of the area, I would definitely do it again.

while sitting at my phenology site today I found the water to be very nice to watch. Due to the recent rain the past week or so Winooski River was super flooded, spots that usually have visible rocks, plants, grasses etc. were completely underwater. At the dam above the water was had so much water rushing out of it I kept thinking it was going to break. at the salmon hole the water was moving in a way that was very interesting to watch and at one point i thought a whirlpool was forming. Something i also noticed was the amount of bubbles and foamy buildup in the water. I was wondering about whether that was caused by the motion of the water or by pollutants. the leaves are different than they were on m last visit. all the trees have turned and are loosing the last of their leaves. There was also less people around today but more garbage left around. I saw a lot of wrappers and bottles around. I think on my next Ill do a cleanup.

for my place-based Phenology site I chose to study Salmon hole located in Winooski. I chose this location because it is only about a 15 minute walk from where I live (trinity campus) and i also wanted to find a site that was located near a body of water. In order to get to salmon hole I walk down Colchester Ave and turn onto Riverside Ave before the bridge. There are walking trails down at the salmon hole that lead to river which is nice. some of the shrubbery i saw at my location were sumacs, goldenrods, common buckthorn, and elms. i saw maple and birch trees down at my location as well. While i was at my site (about an hour on Tuesday afternoon) I saw 12 people. For a Tuesday afternoon i thought that was fairly busy and wanted to see if I could find litter around and I saw a few wrappers and bottles and picked them up.

here is a drawing of some leaves i saw down at my site.