Over spring break, I visited North Carolina for spring training for the UVM Sailing Team. The first thing that I noticed when we got into North Carolina was that there was very little natural area. Almost everything was huge expanses of mono crop land that would stretch for hundreds of acres. I noticed algae growing in the drainage ditches along the land. In the car with me both ways were a junior Environmental Science Major and a junior Agriculture Major who focuses on the environment. We had great conversations in the car ride about the lack of natural land and how the mono crop farming was completely unsustainable.
This led me to having some great conversations about restored lands around the area. There were often small patches as we drove by with much smaller trees that was obviously a new forest beginning to form. One person posed a question about whether this was an intentional regrowth project like Jericho Research Facility or if it was an abandoned field. It was determined to most likely be an abandoned field due to the fact that there was some species diversity and the trees were all oddly spaced. There were also trees in different stages of life and size, though most of them were around the same size. It was determined the abandoned field was now well into primary succession because the trees were over 15 feet tall, but not nearly mature. There were all softwoods in the patch of land, and I do not think there were any dead trees.
One major problem for me was that there were no natural areas in North Carolina that were not touched by humans recently. There was the occasional patch of trees, but nothing I could consider for a phenology spot. Therefore, I had to improvise. I was constantly sailing, and the water and coastline seemed like a fairly untouched area, so I decided to go with these as a whole as my phenology site. I was very busy this trip, so it was hard to immerse myself for an hour in one place, but I was constantly on the coast and observing from the boats and from the shore and lunch, so I decided to use these encounters as my site.
I noticed several birds of prey. Unfortunately, my phone camera was not good enough to get a quality picture to help with the identification process. I am not good at identifying them, but I noticed a particular habit to stick over the land rather than the water because the land was warmer. When the Seabreeze filled, the air would rise at the land and fall at the ocean, so the birds stayed in the updraft to use less wing power while looking for prey. I saw a few quick dives toward the shore, but nothing extreme. I wish I could have identified the types of birds they were.
I also noticed very few hardwoods. I could not identify the exact tree species because they were foreign species to me, but the majority of pines seemed to be a close relative the Eastern White Pines. They completely overpopulated all of the other tree species. They would grow in the primary succession forests, in the patches of forests, right on the edge of the water, or anywhere else. They were always the dominant species in the area. The only hardwoods I noticed were outside of the hotel where they were intentionally planted or left uncut to enhance the view.