Without snow on the ground my penology spot doesn’t seem to have changed much from my previous visit. The plants that reside in in my spot are all still going strong as they are majority ferns and mosses which have some resilience to the cold. I did notice that mushroom and fungus activity has been steadily decreasing as we traverse through the phenological calendar, and it continues to trend in that direction. Aside from a few sturdy turkey tails and molds, there wasn’t much.
Animal wise, my phenology spot is pretty bare, even the fish in the brook are nowhere to be seen. The air was quiet aside from a flock of crows and I was pretty disappointed at first. With a little searching though, signs begun to reveal themselves. Dead trees were riddled with large pileated woodpecker holes and birds nests were common in the canopy. Looking down to the forest floor I noticed a small, freshly dug burrow, likely from a medium sized rodent. I noticed some scat that I later identified as racoon. It seems like there is no lack of animal activity however the animals were nowhere to be seen. The last thing I noticed was a gall on a dead goldenrod stalk in the meadow where a gall ball fly larvae was ready to wait out the impending winter.
