While walking around the city of Burlington today, I found quite a lot of tree buds, melting ice, and sunny weather.
I first took a stroll down to the Redstone Quarry to see how the phenology has changed since I last visited. I came across quite a lot of buds in the area. First I came across what I believe to be a Bitternut Hickory, which caught my eye with the bright yellow color.
Next, I came across a bud that I could not quite figure out. It was dark and on the larger side. After I stopped to look at the buds for a few moments, I continued on the path and stopped at the quarry for a few minutes, then turned around and went back towards the street. While walking back to the street, I stopped to take a photo of the icy trail packed down by the people that previously walked on it.
The way the snow was completely packed down on the trail was really interesting to me. Even though it was slightly on the warmer side today, the trail was still incredibly icy from being packed down by a multitude of people that have walked on it over the past few weeks. The way the snow was today made it nearly impossible to find any tracks present. The areas that there seemed to have been tracks were melting away, and the snow that was still on the ground had frozen over so there were not tracks left on it.
As I walked around the streets of Burlington, I found this snow bank melting in the sun. I thought it was a really good example of human activity in the area over the past couple months. The only places where the snow was still built up were areas where the snow had been pushed to the side by plows, or natural areas where the snow had not been disturbed.
As I walked through the streets, I found quite a few buds that appeared to be Red Maple buds to me. These buds were bright red at the end, and I crushed one and it did not release an odor. I continued on my walk and eventually ended up back near my dorm. As I was walking back to my dorm the opposite way that I had left it, I came across a huge sheet of ice, which I figured out came from a fire hydrant that had appeared to burst.
The pattern that the ice was in was very interesting to me. Upon first glance, it looks like it is a large sheet that is taking up the whole sidewalk, but when I stepped on it I found that it was beginning to melt from the bottom up. I think this was because the pavement was getting hot from the sun underneath the ice, so it was melting from the bottom up.