Maggie’s Phenology Project

Welcome to the wooded pond behind my old high school in Warrenton, Virginia! This natural area encircled by suburbia is a short walk from school, my house, and a friend’s house, so I’ve visited it countless times to make the most of the outdoors. Some of these adventures were with classes: sailing homemade boats in Marine Biology, snapping pictures of swans in Photography, or collecting soil for Environmental Science. Still more were simply walking in the woods with my mom or my friends, enjoying the comfort found in a familiar forest.

https://goo.gl/maps/JuGd9Nm8dWVSA6Ny8

Virginia has a significantly warmer climate than Vermont, so the vegetation in this spot is quite different to my spot in Centennial Woods. There are fewer evergreens and more mast-producing trees like Pawpaws, Walnuts, Dogwoods, and Persimmons. There are also many nonnative Osage Orange trees, which were planted near the school as a “living fence” and spread towards the pond through their fruit. The underbrush is very thick in some areas and hosts many species of songbirds, while the pond is home to geese, swans, and ducks.

Unfortunately, the young beech tree at the entrance to my place has fallen 🙁

The Eastern White Pines and Eastern Hemlocks have obviously retained their needles, but virtually every other woody plant is becoming quite bare. The Norway Maple and American Beech (r.i.p.) still have quite a few yellow leaves. The Buckthorn leaves are hanging on for dear life but look rather spotty and decrepit.

On the forest floor, asters are dying, grasses are dwindling, and some ferns are yellowing slightly. Meanwhile, the logs are still covered in moss and smattered with yellow-orange fungus.

This week, I visited my place with the intention to observe as much as I could about the nature of my spot. I ended up delegating a few minutes to focus on each of my five senses– here is what I noticed!

Sights: The dominant color in the forest is shifting to brown as fallen leaves carpet the ground. Yellow accents are found in the few leaves still hanging on (namely the American Beech and Norway Maple). Pops of pink from sugar maple saplings and invasive burning bush add some excitement, and the wolf’s milk amoeba has turned to a beautiful mauve. Due to the abundant ferns, moss, evergreens, and buckthorn, even some green is still present.

Smells: Due to the moistness of my area, fallen leaves are quickly beginning to decompose. Their sugars break down, creating a sweet, musky aroma. The numerous mossy logs smell very earthy and reminiscent of Demeter’s “Dirt” cologne.

Sounds: At its quietest, all that can be heard from my location is the gentle trickling of the stream. However, this is often interrupted by the rustling of a squirrel hunting down autumn mast, the familiar cawing of crows, or the heated conversation of a pair of bluejays.

Touch: The stream is unsurprisingly chilly! Perhaps due to lack of rain, the moss is dryer than normal, but still feathery. The gills of this week’s lone mushroom are quite soft, and lastly, the fallen beech leaves I took home are uniquely papery.

Taste: Unfortunately, I am no foraging expert, and the only berries I was able to find were of the buckthorn. These apparently cause severe cramping, so I opted out of a taste test this time.