Hi Fellow NR’ers,
December has brought some interesting changes to my phenology spot. The most notable, snow! My spot looks very different then it did when I first began visiting it. And the snow brings some wonderful surprises.
Snow gives us the privilege of seeing some tracks, not sure what these may be from, but based off of our readings, I’m willing to guess they may be left behind by a rabbit, which tend to hop in a straight line and have 3in prints.
It wasn’t quite cold enough for the river to freeze yet, but I did note that pretty much 80 percent of the vegetation was not gone (other than the evergreens such as the white pines lining the river). Below is an image of what my site looked like when I visited, positioned at the same angle as one of my first postings for comparison. In the background you can see the eastern white pines with their needles, a stark contrast to their deciduous neighbors.
It was such a pleasure to watch the seasons unfold at my phenology spot this semester. Signing off for now!
-Ava Sciglimpaglia