A UVM blog Salmon Hole Phenology Spot

During the four-day BioBlitz, I explored a few different areas of Burlington. I started with species right in front of my dorm, and then further across campus towards Athletic and even at Outlook Park. My experience with iNaturalist was kinda rough in the beginning as I kept taking pictures with my camera, then uploading it to my laptop and then finally iNaturalist. After I figured out I could just use the app on my phone to take pictures and upload my life got wayyy easier. I found the different species that other cities found interesting. I found it interesting the different species that other poeple found around the world as a lot of them aren’t native here, so poeple residing here might not know they exist.

My site has in several ways over time. When we first visited Salmon Hole, there were a variety of different trees on the rocks and throughout, which is still true now, but used to be covered in trees and had different birds and critters fluttering about. The water level seems to have gone up by at least half a foot, as I wasn’t able to sit as close as I normally do. This could be due to the amount of rain that we have had in the last couple weeks. Some major landmarks in Salmon Hole that I’ve become familiar with, is the bride/path that you use to get closer to the water. When it was extremely icy, the only way down was to slide on your butt because of how steep it was. Now the path is slightly damp (again thanks to the rain), but completely visible. Another landmark is the big eastern white pine right across the bridge that goes over the stream. This tree is a somewhat moderately difficult tree to climb, but once you get up the view is so pretty and you kind of feel like a bird. (Now is when I would have inserted a picture from above, but I was scared I’d drop my camera the 20ish feet from the tree.) I don’t necessarily consider myself as a part of my place, but I am more familiar and comfortable with it. From looking closely at the changes, to trail running through the trees every one in a while, I’ve become pretty familiar with the area. However, I don’t really believe that people are a “part” of a place, only temporary people passing through that may or may not connect and affect the ecosystems present.

Trees are a flowering! After heading back to salmon hole, I checked on my tree and saw that it is indeed budding. As seen in the iNaturalist post below, the tree has started flowering meaning that soon leaves start growing soon and we won’t be in depressing stick season anymore.

Last week, I went back to visit the paper birch standing at the trail head in Salmon Hole. So far, this tree still does not seem to be budding anywhere, but the bark is peeling a little more than it was last visit. There are some green things on the tree that might grow and start budding soon now that it’s getting a little warmer.

At Salmon Hole, we found this Paper Birch right at the top of the trail head next to the parking lot. You can tell that this is a birch because the bark is lighter and it’s peeling off. You can tell that this isn’t a winter lookalike as gray birches tend to grow further in the south, and yellow birches don’t peel of a whiter bark.

For the iNaturalist Project, my friends and I wandered around Centennial Woods searching for signs of life. While walking around, we found a chickadee in a bush. The iNaturalist app says that it’s at least a chickadee, but not the specific kind. After looking up pictures of different chickadees, we have determined that this bird is a black capped chickadee.

Using the app was sort of difficult, as there wasn’t much service in the woods, so instead I took pictures and then added them into the app after I got back to my dorm.

Salmon Hole looks very different than the last time I saw it. And by that I mean it’s covered in snow, and actually daytime so I can see my surroundings. When I visited this time, the stairs were so icy and covered in snow, that my friends and I had to slide down on out butts instead of walking down because of how steep it was. The branches were all bare of leaves and covered in a beautiful blanket of snow, as was the ground. Even the shallower part of the Winooski had a frozen layer on top. This is a pretty drastic change, seeing as last time I visited I didn’t even wear a jacket.

Another notable difference was the absence of mammals and birds. Normally when I visit, there are birds and other rodents moving around the wooded area. This time I only saw tracks that they were there. Most of the tracks that I found were dog tracks, which makes sense as a lot of people in the area tend to hike Salmon Hole. However, there were other tracks that I found that might be fox tracks. They’re pretty deep, but not packed down which makes sense as foxes aren’t really heavy creatures. The tracks found also shows a diagonal walked which, again, leads to a fox. The fox tracks are shown below. The pictures I took of the dog tracks were kind of hard to see as there were footprints surrounding them so those will not be included.

The foliage has changed drastically in the last few months. There are little to no leaves on the trees, and even the leaf litter scattering the ground is missing. There are a few small bird nests high up, but it looks like there are no inhabitants. Animal activity has decreased, as there are little to no tracks in the area.

Some aspects of my phenology place that I enjoy the most is the view on the water. Since Salmon Hole is in the middle of businesses and other urban buildings, it’s nice to see the natural space in the middle of it all. I also love how there were steps put in to help hikers navigate the hilly area, which makes it more accessible to be seen. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed visiting the past couple months, and I’ll miss it during winter break.

Bellevue State Park is a 328 acre state park in the suburbs of Wilmington, Delaware. It used to be owed by the du Pont Family but was purchased by the state of Delaware in 1976 after the owner William du Pont Jr. passed away as his children had no interest in maintaining it. This area and Salmon Hole have some tree species in common, such as Norway Maple, Northern Red Oak and American Beech. Both natural areas are also surrounded by buildings and roads.

This pond naturally occurs, but had to be cleaned up about 20 years ago to get rid of all the goose droppings and other things floating in the water. The pond is home to fish species, turtles, and various birds and is open for catch and release fishing. This helps add to the recreation in Wilmington, without harming the fish population.

Bellevue is also home to multiple trails in the wooded area, as well as deer and wolves. You can see in the first picture there is a small stream coming from the pond that was used to help flow the water out of the pond when they were cleaning it. There is also this metal stand off of one of the trails that was used back when Bellevue Mansion housed the du Ponts and there was production and construction happening throughout the land.

Unlike the last time I visited Salmon Hole, this time it was dark, chilly and pretty cold. This kind of fit because during my 15 minutes of just sitting on the river bank, I noticed how different the area looked from the last time I visited, which was only a few weeks ago. Almost all of the trees have dropped their leaves, and they now covered the ground making it pretty slippery as it had rained the day before. It was also closer to rush hour when I went, so there were more cars whizzing by adding to the sounds of the river. The only plant species that wasn’t completely bare of leaves was the Norway Maple. The leaves of this woody species were changing color and falling off, but there was still a good amount of leaves left, which may have to do with the fact that they are invasive to the area.