Hi! Welcome back to my blog! It is exciting to be back here after a month of relaxing at home. It is weirdly very warm this week, but I am not complaining. I know Mother Nature is trying to trick us into thinking it is spring, but we are too smart to believe that this will last. It is February in Vermont, after all. In this balmy 40 degree weather, I decided to ride my bike to my spot. I found a couple of tracks that I think might be those of a cottontail rabbit, but it is difficult to tell because of the thawing snow. They seem to be tracks of a galloper, with a straddle of about 3 to 4 inches and a stride of 6 or 7. Although these were the only tracks I could find in the melting snow, I am sure other wildlife are taking advantage of this warm weather, too.
Identifying trees is much harder in the winter. The bare, leafless trees may seem impossible to identify, but with a closer look at their bark and twigs, I was able to draw some conclusions. As I have mentioned before, there are mostly maples and oaks here. More specifically, using our winter twig identification guide, I was able to identify a White Oak tree by its blunt buds and a Red Maple by its red buds. There are a lot of Paper Birch, and a couple Eastern White Pines are scattered around. I even recognized an invasive species, the Norway Maple by its green and red scaly buds.
Okay, that’s all for now. Let’s see how long this warm weather lasts.