As I entered Centennial woods to create my final blog I was filled with feelings of excitement but also a little sadness. Excited that my first year of college was over and I achieved a huge accomplishment in my life but sad as this would be my last time this year visiting my site. When I got to my site I sat beneath the tall Eastern White Pine that stood in the middle of my site, a place I had sat many times before. I rested in silence trying to take in my surroundings. Bird songs filled the canopy, many more than my first time I visited back in September. I have been trying to work on my bird Id, and was only able to identify three bird calls a black capped chickadee, Blue Jay, and pine warbler. I know that sounds pretty unimpressive to an experience birder but to me as someone who had no experience in birding before this semester it was a big accomplishment. It was’t just me who had changed over the year but so did my site.

Over the year I have become very familiar with my site. There is one landmark that I especially have become familiar with.

At my site nature and Culture intertwine here because it is directly on one of the trails that leads people through Centennial woods. Centennial woods is one of the closest natural Areas to UVM and so it gets lots of visitors. Many People come here for recreation wether that going for a stroll, a run, or even to walk there dogs. Many people walk these trails but I doubt many stop and appreciate the like I have. It’s very interesting the connections that I have made at this site that I randomly selected at the beginning of the year. A week ago me and my friends were walking through centennial woods. I stopped everyone when we reached my spot, I explained what species of tree each of the trees were at my site and even explained where I found different species of animals over the course of my time here. It was cool to share my connection to the site with other people who probably would have just walked through it without giving it a second thought. I was unsure going into the woods if I felt that I was part of the place, Im still not sure as If I would categorize as part of it because I hadn’t done much to give back to site, but I would definitely say over the course of the year I had built a connection.

This was the final photo I took Leaving my site. It truly looked beautiful as I was leaving and the sun was shining.