Final Blog

May 5th

My site at Centennial woods has changed a lot over the several months I have visited it. In the fall, lots of plants were dying and animals were doing preparations for the winter. There was still a lot of green. Then came winter and the only green vegetation was the eastern white pines that populated the area. It was often covered in a layer of snow, and it was very quiet, since most animals were dormant or migrating. Now its spring and everything is back in bloom. Mushrooms are starting to appear on some logs. It is the season of regrowth and rebirth and that is seen by the plethora of new life sprouting from the forest floor.

Every time I visited my site, I went to the same three spots. First, the stream, which runs through the front of my site. It’s been cool to see how the intensity of the stream has changed. Then halfway through my site there is a big tree which I would always stand near and observe new growth on or around it. lastly, towards the back of my site there is a dead log which I always ended my visit laying on for a while, taking in the sights and sounds of the woods.

Nature and culture are very closely intertwined here because centennial woods is so close to the University of Vermont campus as well as the city of Burlington. Many students and town members actively visit the forest for recreation. Running, hiking, relaxing, birding, etc. Its close proximity to Burlington also means that it is a great spot for research. There is also a lot of volunteer work that happens in Centennial woods, such as the clean-up which is happening on my 4th. Which today I did see some new tree plantings surrounded by protective covers which could be a research or volunteer activity. It is important for everyone who visits the space to be respectful and mindful of the plant and animal life around them. I had to be careful when walking around my site because there were so many new fern fronds, and I didn’t want to step on any.

I think I consider myself more of a visitor of my place. I come to observe and document the changes that happen around me, but I never take anything from the area, and I never leave anything there (leave no trace!!). Though I do align with the ideal that we are all a part of nature, and we need to take good care of it. I think I care much more about Centennial woods now than I did at the start of the semester which goes to show that having a connection to a place makes it that much more important.

Along with all of the new growth, I also heard many birds including:

  • White-throated Sparrow
  • Great Crested Flycatcher
  • Red-breasted Nuthatch
  • Black-capped Chickadee
  • American Goldfinch
  • Dark Eyed Junco

There was also a lot of insect and bee activity. I also saw a frog in the stream!

I will definitely be back to spend more time there in the fall, but for now, Goodbye Centennial Woods!

City Nature Challenge

April 29th

The City Nature Challenge is an event on iNaturalist where people all over the world can make observations in nature and “compete” against each other. I found it interesting to look at the map of the places where global observations are coming from. It’s pretty much all over the world, mainly in the United States and Europe. It was also cool to see the different kinds of exotic plants and animals from around the globe.

For the City Nature Challenge BioBlitz assignment, I chose to walk around campus and revisit Centennial woods. I ended up logging about 12 observations on iNaturalist. I have used iNaturalist a lot in the past, so it was very easy for me to navigate the app. I tried to observe plants are animals that were specifically intriguing to me.

I was able to identify some birds such as Black-Capped Chickadee, Ruby-crowned Kinglet, American Goldfinch, American Crow, Red-Bellied Woodpecker, and Pine Siskin. Below are some of my other observations with a caption of what iNaturalist identified them as.

Grape Hyacinths
Corydalis
Eastern Boxelder Bug
Dutchman’s Breeches
Forsythias
American Red Squirrel
Garter Snake
Christmas Fern

Spring

March 25th

Visiting my phenology spot again, I didn’t see too many signs of spring. Thats likely because it’s only a few days into spring and it has been very cold recently. It snowed a few days ago, but almost all of that snow is now gone. I mainly noticed the abundance of birds that I was hearing. I used the Merlin Bird ID app to identify the calls of the birds I heard. I ended up identifying a bunch, including:

  • American Crow
  • Black-Capped Chickadee
  • Red-Breasted Nuthatch
  • Downy Woodpecker
  • Dark-eyed Junco
  • Tufted Titmouse
  • Pine Siskin

I also spotted a beautiful hawk of some kind, but unfortunately, I wasn’t able to grab a picture before it flew off.

Below are some sound recordings of the bird calls at my spot.

Red-Breasted Nuthatch and Black-Capped Chickadee
Downy Woodpecker
Black-capped Chickadee and American Crow

I was also able to get some (bad) photos of a Downy Woodpecker and some Chickadees.

My spot consists of mostly evergreen trees, so there weren’t many hardwoods around to check if buds were swelling. Near the stream, I did find one that had prominent buds. I used our twig ID sheet to determine that the tree is a Norway Maple.

There were some signs of wildlife activity. Mainly pinecones that have been taken apart, likely by squirrels. I also saw a dug hole in the ground that looked like an animal was searching for buried food.

Lastly, I noticed that the stream was less strong than it normally is. I looked for signs of amphibians, but I didn’t see any. I must still be too cold for them. I did see some cool oxygen bubbles all underneath the water though.

Hopefully next time I visit Centennial woods, there will be more signs of life!

Wildlife

February 19

For this blog post, I chose to return to Centennial woods. Last time, I saw some pretty cool tracks, so I was hoping to see something like them again. It also had just snowed so I was hoping there would be a lot of fresh prints. Unfortunately, I was not as lucky at spotting tracks this time.

While walking through centennial I kept thinking I saw tracks that belong to a coyote or a fox, but I realized they were just dog prints. The toes were more splayed out, which tends to happen with domestic animals, and they were all following the trail.

Likely Dog prints

Then I went back further into the woods and saw more tracks that looked like either a coyote or a fox, but it was hard to tell. The recent snow had made the tracks difficult to make out. As I followed the tracks, there were patches of disturbance and then they kept going. It may have been a scuffle with another animal but there were no other animal tracks around. It could also have been the animal sitting down. At times, it also looked like the animal only had three toes, so I’m not really sure what was going on with that.

Prints 1
Prints 2
Disturbance 1
Disturbance 2

The only other animal tracks I found were of a bird on a log and a squirrel. Though the squirrel was weird because I could only see the front feet. Its possible the snow could have disturbed part of those tracks.

Bird Tracks
Squirrel tracks

I liked using INaturalist to record my sightings. I’ve used this app for a while, so I am pretty familiar with how it works. I love that it helps you identify things outside that you might have never known about otherwise. I wish there were more tracks at Centennial right now, but I might try to go back in the next few days to find more.

Wildlife

January 29th

I was not having much luck at finding tracks at the beginning of my time at my spot but then I explored around and ended up finding some really interesting tracks!

These first few I thought might have been dog tracks, but they were so far off the trail that I don’t think they are. I used my tracking guide and I think they are either from a coyote or a fox.

These same tracks were also leading into this weird dug-out cave thing that looks like it was dug recently.

These next ones are really interesting because I’ve never seen tracks like these before. It’s hard to tell what exactly the print is but I am thinking that they might be from a woodchuck or maybe a raccoon.

There were also some other tracks that I wasn’t sure exactly what they were. The look sort of like the coyote ones but a bit smaller and with more rounded pads.

Lastly, I saw evidence of squirrel activity because of the plethora of broken apart pinecones. I did see two squirrels, but I did not end up getting a picture of them.

Phenology

January 29th

For the spring semester I decided to continue to return to Centennial Woods. When I visited this place today, it was raining. It had also recently snowed which means that the conditions were very icy. I noticed that there was almost no green except for moss on decomposing logs. You could also see through the forest a lot more since the understory is mostly tree trunks and there is little shrub material. There was less snow in my spot than some other areas in the woods. Likely because the eastern white pines provide a good shelter for the forest floor. Below, I am including some pictures of what my spot looks like today.

The stream at my spot was also flowing very fast. That is likely because of the recent snowfall and the snow beginning to melt, as well as the rainfall that is happening today.

I also observed a weird phenomenon on a few trees where there appears to be bubbles forming along the bark of the tree. It looks a little bit like someone spit on the tree.

Reflection

December 9th

I originally chose this spot because it was easy access and I thought I could make many good observations to add to my blog, but I have really grown to love this part of Centennial Woods.

My favorite part about it is all of the wildlife activity. I often got to see squirrels and chipmunks as well as many different types of birds. I hope that I will be able to see traces of more “rare” animals when we come back from winter break.

It was also just a nice place to sit for a while and spend some time at. It was very calm, with the wind blowing through the large pines and the gentle bubbling of the nearby stream. I will definitely want to come back to this spot throughout next semester when I’m feeling overwhelmed or need a quiet place to think.

Wildlife

December 9th

Today I wasn’t able to see any animals, most likely because they are preparing to hunker down for winter. But I did see evidence of them through tracks in the snow. Below are many pictures I took of the tracks. I think most of them are squirrels and there are a few bird tracks as well. I heard a couple birds, but it was much less than I normally hear-this indicates that many of them have migrated.

Tracks right next to a broken-up pinecone-evidence of squirrels
Bird tracks on top of squirrel(?) tracks
More tracks on top of a log
Tracks leading down a log
Overlapping of many tracks- showing that many animals walked in this spot, or one animal was there frequently.
More tracks
More tracks

Vegetation

December 9th

My place is mostly filled with Eastern White Pines and because they are pine trees, they keep their needles all year long.

There were a few other species near the river that had a few leaves still left on them. The leaves that were still on the tree were yellowed and looked close to falling off. Those species were:

  • American Beech
  • White Oak
  • Norway Maple

There were also some ferns that were still green on the forest floor. Since it had just snowed, they were all covered in snow. They also seemed more compressed down than usual. This may be because of the snow weight or because they are beginning to die.

I also noticed that there seemed to be a lot more leaf litter on the ground. Or at least the branches and other plant material were more noticeable. Since many of the leaves are gone, you can see through the forest much easier now.

I kept seeing this weird configuration of ice on the ground. I’m not sure what it is or how it forms but when you step on it, it crunches and shatters into many smaller ice pieces. It definitely has to do with how cold it was today (about 20 degrees) because even the mud on the ground was frozen.

Ecology

November 27th

A lot of the trees here are the same as in Centennial Woods. I was able to get a lot of the identities from the fallen leaves. Some that I observed are:

  • Eastern White Pine
  • Sugar Maple
  • American Beech
  • Northern Red Oak
  • White Oak

It just snowed here so I was also very muddy out. And since the park is right near a road, in most of the places you could hear cars.

Here are the calls of some of the birds that I heard including:

  • Blue Jay
  • White-Breasted Nuthatch
  • Black-Capped Chickadee