I can’t believe we’re already at the final phenology site visit! After observing my site since October, I have watching the site change with the seasons, and now that my site is actually starting to look more like it did at the beginning of the year I have noticed some differences. In the fall, the forested area was much more filled out with leaves whereas currently the trees and plants are just starting out and budding. There was also a lot more fallen leaves in the fall obviously but now the leaves have decomposed some and are very dull compared to the fall, so it’s nice that the new leaves are starting to come in. Bird are also much more active now, I could only identify two black capped chickadees calling back and forth but there were many other birds calling during my last visit.
The two main landmarks I’ve become familiar with are the yellow bird feeder and the large snag of an eastern white pine that has blue marking on it. These two are right at the center of my site which makes it easy for relocating each time I visit. More minor landmarks would be the striped maple on the other side of the trail from the snag and the fallen logs near the trail.
Nature and culture definitely intertwine at my phenology spot because of its proximity to Trinity Campus. It gets a lot of use from students hanging out or walking through and there are also often people from the Gund Institute or other buildings walking through the woods. The woods also eventually goes through to an apartment complex at the bottom of the hill so people could be using this trail as a way to walk home from work or school. I also know that there is a trail in the woods that eventually leads to a nun cemetery and a children’s school with a playground which a lot of people on Trinity go to explore via the woods. I would 100% consider myself apart of my phenology spot because I use the woods for way more than just this assignment but even if I only went to this spot because of this assignment I would still consider myself apart of it because I got to know the place over time and observed it change with the seasons.