With the start of the semester in full swing, it was time for me to visit my phenology spot! I really missed my biweekly visits and cannot wait to see what kinds of changes are in store for this semester.
The first and most prevalent change is the snow! It got a little warmer yesterday so there was this weird rainy/snowy sludge coming down from the sky. Then, it got super cold again last night and everything froze, so it was a very icy walk to my spot. I also believe that this strange weather pattern is to blame for the notable absence of animal tracks. Maybe the new snow or unfreeze and refreeze covered up any tracks from yesterday. I even looked around the log Bill usually drinks from and his paw prints were missing in action. If you are new to my blog, Bill is the squirrel that I typically see at my phenology spot, but unfortunately there were no signs or visits from him this time.
Even though Bill was missing, there were many different birds calling during my morning visit. I also found a weird pattern in the snow by the base of a tree, and it kind of looks like there is some type of burrow or hole there. Other than that, I did not find any explicit animal tracks.
The animal behavior was not the only change I noticed at my spot. There were no longer any leaves on the deciduous trees and the creek was mostly frozen. There were also no little fish in the open sections. The one observation that stuck out to me is the Japanese Barberry still clinging onto their berries! I found this very surprising and honestly kind of impressive. That is definitely going to be one of the first things I look for during my next visit!
