I spent some of my Thanksgiving break in Weston, a small town in Southwestern Vermont. As the sun began to set, I went out to explore the woods surrounding the house where I stayed and found trails that lead me to some really nice natural areas. It was a clear and calm 37°F day, so I was happy to spend some time exploring and observing my surroundings. The ground below me was covered in a 1-inch layer of snow and I was next to a small pond that was frozen over. I was at 1,500-foot elevation, 1,300 feet higher than my phenology spot in Burlington. This elevation caused the snowy and icy conditions that I haven’t yet experienced in Red Rocks Park.
As I stood in silence, most of the noise I was met with was from passing cars on Route 100 which ran a mere 350 feet away from me. Listening beyond the cars, I heard the light babbling of a stream that flows from the pond next to where I stood. I heard a single distant birdsong in my time out, a sound I noted hearing in previous blog posts.
There weren’t as many signs of animal life in this area as there are in the warmer months. Bear, deer, and foxes can be found roaming around here almost every night throughout parts of the year. In my exploration, I noticed no tracks in the snow ahead of me that fell 3 days before.
Some focal species I observed in this area that are also present in my Phenology Spot in Burlington were Paper Birches lining the pond, Red Maples that were completely bare of leaves, and Eastern White Pines that provided some green background in a forest of sticks. I also noticed some Eastern Hemlocks, a species I did not record seeing in my previous visits to Red Rocks Park.