Prompt #2: February

The latest picture of my mushroom tree! Still standing, a little snowy, but going strong!

One phenological change I observed this month was in the mushrooms on my tree. All of these images were pictures I took in February of different mushrooms on different parts of the tree. While in the fall, all of the mushrooms were the white color similar to the first photo, I see now that some of them have begun to turn orange in color. The mushrooms closer to the base of the tree are the ones that are more orange, which I believe is because of the contact they have had with snow.

White mushrooms, similar to those I typically observe in the fall.
Orange mushrooms, most likely due to the snow.
My field notes- this was the first nice, warm day for a while, so I heard a number of birds, though I wasn’t able to see or photograph any. I was able to recognize 5 chickadees and 1 dark-eyed Junco. I heard several more but I was unable to identify them.

One animal I’ve seen a lot of evidence of is a squirrel. Squirrels have left a lot of hints around my area- from tracks, to leftover acorns and pinecones, to holes at the base of trees.

In the winter, squirrels are scurrying around and digging up food that they have stored earlier in the year. The food is typically stored close to their dens, so they spend less time and energy foraging in the cold. They build up layers of fat to keep themselves warm (Lincoln Park Zoo, 2011). They’re mainly active during the day and sleep at night. Their predators include mainly birds of prey, grey foxes, and coyotes (Vermont Center for EcoStudies, 2014).

Two species that the squirrels are interacting with are oak trees and coyotes. Oak trees provide shelter for the squirrels, as evidenced in the images below. Coyotes are interacting with squirrels by hunting them for food (Vermont Center for EcoStudies, 2014).

Squirrel track in the snow
Hard to see, but there are some tracks here, as well as tree debris on the snow from squirrels jumping around and climbing up and down the trees.

Sources

Lincoln Park Zoo. (2011, December 9). What Do Squirrels Do in Winter? | Lincoln Park Zoo. Retrieved February 27, 2020, from https://www.lpzoo.org/blog/what-do-squirrels-do-winter

Vermont Center for EcoStudies. (2014, November 12). Red Squirrel. Retrieved February 27, 2020, from https://vtecostudies.org/wildlife/mammals/red-squirrel/