April Showers Bring May Flowers!
Budding Begins
Walking around my site at Centennial Woods, I noticed quite a few buds beginning to form. Many of them were hard to identify, but there were a few where small forms of a tree’s leaves had formed and could be identified. One tree on which this was the case was the sugar maple. Although most of the buds remained very small, there were a couple that showed the tree’s leaves, and they could be identified. I also noticed a lot of the ground plants were more noticeable, such as the ferns that normally line the forest floor.
Animal Sightings
There were a couple signs of birds while I was at my site. At one point I saw a sparrow sitting in the branch of a tree, but otherwise I heard some bird calls.
I also noticed there were woodpecker holes in a tree near my site. The tree appeared to be dying or less healthy than the trees around it, and the holes in the tree seemed fairly fresh.
Species Diagram
The species diagram I created for my site shows the different bird species that may be present during the months of April as competing for the same prey. This prey includes the tent caterpillar and tiger moth larvae, which are both common during the month of April. The tent caterpillar generally feeds on the tree it is hosted in like a Black Cherry, which is the case at my site.