Welcome Back!

It was great to return back to my spot! It looks so different now, covered in snow. When I arrived at my spot, I was shocked (in a good way) to see my place completely transformed by the snow. The stream had frozen over completely, and there was snow and ice everywhere. It was beautiful! Pictured below is the frozen stream: 

I was also able to see a lot of tracks. My spot was (sadly) covered in human and dog footprints, but I was also able to find some interesting prints as well. I followed, them, trying to get into the mind of the animal. I think it is possible for these tracks to be made by either a dog, coyote, or fox.

The twigs that I found were slightly hard to identify, however I enjoyed looking around and taking photos of them. After close examinations, here are my twigs and what species I believe them to be:

I believe that this twig is from a willow tree, because it is opposite with single scale buds.

I think that this is from a Ginkgo tree, however I have never seen this type of tree before. However, it matched the image and description from the handout

Because of the buds, the fact that it is opposite, and the color, I decided this is from a sugar maple.

I thought this to be from a Norway maple.

Here is a drawing of the twig:

I was looking for animals, however during my duration of being in my spot there were a lot of people and their dogs walking through. I hope that one day I will be able to see the animals in their natural habitat. I also walked around looking for scat or pee, but I did not find any.