Cooling Down And Settling In

On my most recent visit to my spot, it was obvious that things are quickly changing. The trees have fewer leaves, the leaves that remain are browning, the grasses are drying, the flowers are wilting off and milkweed is spreading seeds.

Again, I saw footprints from humans and dogs but couldn’t find much live wildlife except for some small birds (that I unfortunately couldn’t get good pictures of), a frog, grey squirrels and another red squirrel that I saw while it was digging. I did however see some nests exposed by the leaves coming off of the trees.

Introductions!

Hi! To get introductions out of the way I am Sammy Nicoloro, a Wildlife and Fisheries Biology major in the Rubenstein school at UVM. For my location for the place based phenology project I chose a wet and marshy section of the woods under the power lies. Before being assigned this project I had visited this place a few times. I first visited when the myself and a few other girls decided to explore during move-in week. On that first walk we saw big tadpoles and frogs in the water. Once this was assigned I knew I wanted to choose this place.

The site itself is marshy with tall grasses and wildflowers. Along the edges of the area there are ferns mosses and mushrooms. On my trip today I could identify Swamp Aster, White Aster, Goldenrod and unfortunately also Barberry.

In the soft mud I could see human and dog footprints. Also, I noticed some wildlife near the path. First I saw a red squirrel and then a garter snake. Unfortunately, no amphibians.