Yesterday, on January 28, my friend Megan and I headed out once again to Ethan Allen Park to see the phenological changes that have occurred since the last time we visited. It had been about a month and a half since we last went there, so the scenery had some pretty drastic changes.
Immediately we noticed how much snow had piled up in the park since our last visit. Last time, a thin blanket of snow covered the ground, but only about as thick as a centimeter. Now, the snow was deep enough to come in through the top of my snow boots if I wasn’t careful. The snow squeaked and crunched with each step as we trudged through the park to our respective spots.
At our spots we immediately started looking around for signs of wildlife in the snow and trees. On and around the main trail I quickly noticed lots of human footprints, and I was surprised to see ones leading to my exact sit-spot. I was a little excited that someone else was appreciating the spot I chose at the beginning of the year. The first non-human track I found was likely a dog print, but I’m not 100% sure. I ran into a couple of dogs near the entrance and also saw some more walking around, but the print in the snow had a center lobe like a gray fox, so I wasn’t sure which one it came from.
After some more looking around, I found a trail of prints that stretched several yards across the snow. My phenological spot is on an outcropping of a bunch of dolostone boulders, so walking trough the snow to get a closer look at the tracks was a little bit like Russian roulette as to whether or not my foot was stepping on solid ground or not. Eventually I got closer to the tracks unharmed, but the snow still made it difficult to discern which animal made them. Not only had it piled up very deeply over the past month, but we also had fresh snowfall that morning, which covered up these deep tracks even more. it was impossible to see the outline of the paw or hoof that stepped through the snow, so the trail they left was all I had to judge from. My best guess is that the tracks are from a fox, but I would love to hear a more experienced tracker’s opinion! They stretched from the bottom of a small hill up to a little shelter under a dolostone boulder, where a small animal could take refuge from a storm. I think they went even further than that, but I couldn’t see further without running the risk of falling off a cliff (so the trail stops there for me).
Aside from evidence of wildlife in the snow, the trees above us were especially active with birds yesterday. I heard them singing even louder than they did in the warmer months, and it was even easier to see them without the foliage on the trees. There were a few especially round robins as well as a couple of woodpeckers, and another variety of bird that I didn’t know the name of. They were chirping and flying back and forth through the trees, which was super fun to watch.
An interesting thing I noted was that some of the deciduous trees in the park were still holding onto the last of their leaves, despite how dry and dead they were. I was surprised that they were still holding on through the wind and snow, even though there were only a few leaves left.
After about an hour in the park, we began our journey back to campus and our warm dorm rooms!
