A UVM blog Stream Ravine – A Phenological Study

May: Final Phenology Post

I can’t believe freshman year is over! I’ve changed a lot and so has my site. I’ve seen it in the fall, when the deciduous trees were yellow and orange, in the winter when the stream turned to ice and the revine was covered in snow, and now in the spring when the buds are opening! I think there are a few more human signs than there were when I first saw this sight, like trash and shoe tracks. Other than that, the changes have mostly come from the seasons. The major landmarks I’ve become familiar with are the fire pit and the area where logs lay flat like benches in the middle of the site. The area of reeds by the entrance and the stream’s waterfalls are also special spots in the site. Culturally, this may be a spot that college students came/come to get together and hang out. I’ve also found human and dog tracks, so I know it’s somewhere people like to walk with their pets. In both of these cases, people are coming here to spend time outside and enjoy the beautiful site. I don’t really consider myself a part of my place because I don’t rely on it at all and I haven’t done anything to help it. My favorite place that I made a post on over thanksgiving break, Burton Park, is somewhere that I go a lot when I’m feeling stressed or sad. When I go, I also pick up any trash and greet the park. I feel like a part of Burton Park, but I don’t have the same connection with this phenology site. If I spent more time there and worked to clean it up, though, I think that would change.

City Nature Challenge

During this week’s iNaturalist BioBlitz I explored The Intervale on a foraging walk! It was a lot of fun and I learned about a lot of species that can be used for natural medicines and vitamins. A friend and I walked there from campus and ran around documenting a lot of plants as well as birds and critters in the pond. I’ve submitted 42 observations so far and they’ve been really easy to add. It’s a very simple system of taking a picture or recording a sound, much simpler than I remembering it being the last time I used it. For some species I already knew the specific name, but for most I had no idea what they were called. I like that iNaturalist gives you its best guess so you can look through and have somewhere to start. The feature where others can confirm your sightings is really awesome, especially considering there are a lot of people like me who aren’t sure about a lot of the things they’re seeing. I thought it was really cool how many cities across the world are participating in this event. I don’t think they account for population differences in the leaderboard, so it’s big cities that are ahead. I think of big cities as being places with very little biodiversity, but big cities are still ahead in the number of species category, although that might just be due to the fact that they have more people looking rather than there actually being more species there. This event has been a lot of fun and I’ve gotten way more comfortable using iNaturalist!

MARCH

It’s a bit ironic that this week we’re supposed to be looking for signs of spring and we just got the biggest snow of the year! But even with the deep snow there were still some signs of warmer weather approaching and animals re-awakening. The birds were the loudest I’ve heard them at my phenology spot since the fall. I used the Cornell bird app to identify Tufted Titmouse, Ring-billed Gull, Carolina Wren, and Brown Creeper from their calls. I also heard a woodpecker! The tree buds were not as obviously ready for spring. I didn’t see any that were really starting to change, but I did find some buds that looked ever so slightly enlarged. I identified them as Buckthorn, Boxelder, Yellow Birch and Red Maple. I also found two species of mammal tracks around my site that I identified one as a Red Squirrel and a Cottontail Rabbit. I didn’t see any signs of amphibians.

February Tracking

Today, February 19th, I went to Centennial Woods and looked for signs of wildlife. The only animals we actually saw were some European Starlings, but we did find a good amount of tracks. We identified Snowshoe Hare, Deer Mouse, Domestic Dog, and the print of some kind of bird. We found more tracks than I thought we would, and especially when we went off the trail, we found some nice ones. Using inaturalist was pretty easy and I like how it makes your observations part of a bigger story. Uploading the observations was quick and I think I’ll be using it more in the future.

For the Snowshoe Hare print, we decided that species over other bounders like squirrels because the front paws are offset and not parallel, and the tracks seemed too large for a Cottontail Rabbit. For the tiny tracks, we were deciding between Shrew and Deer Mouse because they are similar in size and both have the tail drag. We landed on Deer Mouse because of the gate pattern. The domestic dog prints were pretty clear, especially since they were everywhere and went along the trail.

January

Today was my first time back at my phenology spot since last semester! It looks very similar to how it did in December, the main difference is the amount of ice. The flat part of the ravine is covered in ice and when I was walking around I could hear it creaking under me, like there was a layer of water or air between the ice and ground. The stream is still unfrozen, though definitely weaker than it was in December.

Hoo’s Around?

I saw a lot of human and dog prints on the flat part of the ravine. Other prints were harder to find, especially since the snow had a lot of texture to it from repeatedly melting and refreezing. I found some that kind of look like squirrel tracks, but it could have just been the way that leaf litter was causing the the snow to melt. I did hear a barred owl though, which was pretty awesome.

December

December is here and all the leaves in the stream ravine have fallen. The ferns are still green, but they’re flat and limp, half covered by leaf litter, which has gotten less vibrant and slightly more decomposed since the last time I was here. The mushrooms on the logs persist and the stream has more water than usual, probably because the recent snowfall melted. Squirrels occasionally make an appearance, and there are distant bird songs. I found footprints that looks like a dog’s, and human ones too, so someone was probably walking their dog here recently. Overall, the animal activity has decreased a lot since the early fall, and even since the November.

What do I love the most about my phenology spot?

I love the stream. The water is so clear and the way it travels over rocks and logs, forming little pools and waterfalls, is so fun. It gives the site great movement and makes it feel a lot more special. I also love how interesting it is to traverse. To get to different parts, you have to jump over the stream, climb over logs and duck under branches. Getting to it and walking through it feels like an adventure. It would be the best playground for a little kid, and I hope that when it gets warmer, I can enjoy it more too.

NOVEMBER MAP

The peak of fall color has passed, and most trees are bare. I almost slipped several times on my way down the steep hill to my site because the ground was so covered in leaves. The assignment for this month was to sit quietly and observe the surroundings and to make bird’s eye view map of the site. I sat on a log about a fourth up the side of the ravine. It was peaceful to just be in nature and get to know the site a little better. The biggest thing I noticed was how much farther I could see into the forest now that most leaves are gone. There were still a few Norway Maples and one American Beach holding onto their leaves, but most had lost so many it was hard to identify them. The ferns look a little less green than the last time I visited, but the mushrooms are the same as before. I got a few startles when I heard rustling from behind me, but it was only squirrels scurrying around, getting ready for winter. The air is cold and most of the decomposing smell that filled the air in early October is gone. The water in the stream is still flowing the same as before, although some of its path has gotten slightly clogged by fallen leaves. The whole open center of the site is covered in a blanket of yellow-brown leaves and I’m interested to see how they’ll look after the snow melts in the spring.