Maggie’s Phenology Project

For my experience in the City Nature Challenge, I mainly explored the UVM campus and Centennial Woods. I really enjoyed using iNaturalist, especially because of the AI feature that helps you to identify species. This, combined with the help of identifiers, helped me learn many common plant species that I had somehow never noticed. I observed 117 species total, most of which were plants and birds. I found it interesting that cities like Capetown consistently get tens of thousands of observations. I assume that Capetown has a large population of environmentalists and/or advertises the City Nature Challenge very effectively.

My site has experienced many phenological changes over the course of my visits. The most obvious was the change in vegetation– in October, the trees retained the majority of their leaves, but by November, they were nearly all gone. Throughout the winter, the trees and undergrowth remained dormant and mostly covered in snow. Then, in March, small buds began appearing. Now, in mid-April, buds are finally converting into identifiable leaves and greenery is returning.

Another notable change was the state of the small stream intersecting the path. It was originally small yet noticeable, but throughout the fall it began to dry up. Then, when I visited in January, it was completely smothered by snow. As the snow melted, its flow began increasing again, and it is now supplemented by spring rains.

The most notable landmarks of my spot are pictured above. They include the massive dead tree at the entrance of my site, the four mossy logs bordering it, and the path and stream that intersect in the center.

Less obvious but still crucial to the place is the vegetation that I have familiarized myself with. This includes the small Eastern Hemlocks, various mosses, and invasives including the Common Buckthorns, Barberry, and Winged Euonymus.

My place is relatively well-traveled due to the path that goes through it. This combines nature and culture by allowing humans to easily traverse and enjoy the benefits of the woods. Tentatively, I would say that I consider these travelers as well as myself to be a part of my phenology place. We all have a relationship with the nature we spend time in, even if we consider ourselves to be temporary visitors. The more often I visit a place, the more I feel connected to it, which is why I feel apart of my place after several months of study.

The buds of my tree appear virtually the same as two weeks ago. Both the buds and twigs are very red, which aligns with the name ‘Red Maple.’ Although the tree lacked physical phenological changes, the surrounding area is clearly beckoning spring. Snow has melted, temperatures are warming, and grasses are beginning to cover the ground again.

For the second part of my tree phenology assignment, I am actually using a different tree. I was corrected on INaturalist, and my tree was not actually a Red Maple due to its alternate branching pattern! Therefore, I returned to Centennial Woods and found a new specimen with opposite branching and buds that I believe are Red Maple.

This tree appears young and therefore has quite small buds. However, they are very red and align with images I’ve seen. I believe that as spring progresses, the buds will grow and align more with the images of Red Maple buds that are large and bunched together.

My tree, as shown on the iNaturalist screenshot, is a budding Red Maple; I found it at the entrance to Centennial Woods near Centennial Court. Its lookalikes include the Sugar Maple and Norway Maple. I was able to dismiss Sugar Maple in my identification process because the buds are rounded rather than spearlike. Norway Maple was harder to rule out, so I used the resource below for comparison. I decided that the buds I found were too red to be Norway. Additionally, I believe the tree is in an early stage of budding and the side buds are therefore not as prominent as the terminal buds yet.

This week, I explored Burlington with a friend in hopes of identifying wildlife as the weather warmed. I observed several flocks of birds on the UVM campus, but the majority of my sightings were in downtown Burlington and along the waterfront of Lake Champlain. INaturalist made every new sighting feel like an accomplishment and I really enjoyed seeing my peers’ observations as well.

Sightings

On campus:

• American Crows
• Canada Geese
• Ring-billed Gull

Downtown:

• Herring Gulls
• Feral pigeons

Battery Park:

• Downy Woodpecker
• Feline and canine prints, most likely domestic

Waterfront Park:

• Mallards

Identification Process

I had the most difficulty identifying the gulls and woodpecker, as they were quite far away. The most common gulls in Burlington are Herring and Ring-billed, the most notable difference being the Ring-billed gull has a black ring on its bill. The gulls I saw downtown did not appear to have this marking, so they were probably Herring. I did not physically identify the gull on Redstone campus, but I believe it was Ring-billed as they are often seen inland in human-dominated spaces.

The woodpecker in Battery Park was small and black and white with a red patch on its head. Unfortunately, this describes both Downy and Hairy Woodpeckers. The main distinction between these two species is that Downy Woodpeckers have a much smaller bill, which I believe aligned with the one that I spotted.

The only mammal signs I encountered were prints along park trails. The vast majority were canine but did not have a clean direct register and seemed to wander, which makes me suspect they were all domestic dogs. The only other prints I found had four toes and were feline in shape. They were about 2.5×2.5 cm, had a diagonal pattern, and had some direct registering that varied in overlap. I believe they were slightly too small and in too urban a location to be a bobcat, so it was likely a feral or domestic cat.

This was my first trip to my phenology place in over a month, so I was quite curious about what might have changed! It was the first time I had seen it with snow, which obviously made it very different in appearance. However, it was also somewhat difficult to pinpoint specific changes since most vegetation and fungi were covered.

I was surprised to see moss still peeking out from under the snow on this log! I didn’t know it was evergreen, but it is powering through the winter along with the Eastern Hemlocks lining the trail.

As it’s located on a trail, there were quite a few prints from people and even a dog. I also witnessed a pair of very vocal crows, a Dark-eyed Junco, and a Red-bellied Woodpecker. Unfortunately, that was the extent of the animal activity that I was able to find at my place.

Bonus Content

For the sake of having more to report on, I want to include some very cute rabbit prints that I found closer to the entrance of Centennial Woods. Nearby shelf mushrooms were chewed down, likely by deer! Lastly, I saw an awesome snow creation.

With winter swiftly approaching, I made my last official visit to my phenology spot to observe the changes that have occurred in the past month.

Most notably, the vegetation is no longer colorful– the only colors to see were brown and some pockets of green. Aside from the evergreen Eastern White Pines and Eastern Hemlocks, the only tree to retain leaves was the American Beech. While last time its leaves were bright yellow, they are now all dead and brown. The buckthorns hung on for quite a while, but they are now as bare as the rest of the trees (with the exception of a few remaining black berries).

The forest floor is coated with fallen leaves that are now long-dead and beginning to decompose. Due to recent rainfall, they are quite damp and range from brown to black. Many leaves also have holes in them, suggesting decomposer feeding activity.

Despite the dense leaf carpet and cold temperatures, many green plants can still be observed. The largest and most obvious are the evergreen wood ferns, but small grasses, white avens, and false ivy are also quite populous, especially close to the stream.

Animal activity seems to generally be on the decline, but I did hear the songs of a Black-Capped Chickadee and two Dark-eyed Juncos. Both these birds spend all year in Vermont, and therefore are quite insulated to protect against freezing temperatures. I also observed quite a few scratches on one of the logs in my spot that I believe might be from some kind of mammal, but I’m not sure!

To bring this blog to a close, I want to mention my favorite aspects of my phenology place. My spot is quite unique because it falls on the border of two of Centennial Woods’ ecosystem types: shallow emergent marsh and Northern Hardwood Forest. Because of this, I’ve been able to observe quite a bit of bird activity. Additionally, a stream runs right through the center of my spot, so it is able to support interesting fungi, moss, and amoebas that I might not have observed in a drier location.

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.