A UVM blog Tess Foster's Phenology Project

During my exploration of Greater Burlington, I decided to explore more around the area that I live by. I walked down South Prospect Street, and woulf walk down the side streets like Maple street and explore about a block down, then come back up.

I noticed lots of phenological changes in the deciduous trees around the houses present on these roads. All of the trees have started to bud, with some even having flowers start to emerge from the buds as well. I saw a variety of different maple trees (like Red and Sugar maples), along with a handful of conifers like White Pines and Eastern Hemlocks. Lots of the planted flowers in front of the houses along the street were blooming, so I saw lots of colors while on my walk.

I enjoy using iNaturalist, but sometimes I do get confused if my tree and plant species are being uploaded to the class’s group. I encountered lots of different species along my walk, with my favorite being the conifers that I listed above (especially the White Pines).

This photo above is in the middle of where my walk was. I started on Main Street, and walked down South Prospect Street, turning down Maple Street and Cliff Street to try to explore more phenological changes going on in my area.

During my Greater Burlington explporation, I chose to go to the Intervale center. While I was there, I noticed many tracks and what seemed like dens burrowed into the snow.

During my exploration, I noticed lots of cross country skiing tracks, along with many trail markers, and lots of informational pannels around the area. Since this area is used for lots of outdoor recreation, the majority of the tracks that I saw were dog prints and foot prints. But, as I explored through the woods, I saw lots of rabbit/hare tracks, burrow holes beside some of the fallen trees, and some other small animal tracks (maybe fisher or squirrel). Since I went when some of the snow has melted, the tracks were not very prominent, and I had to guess on most of them.

Above is a screenshot from google maps of my Greater Burlington phenology spot.

Since my other photos will not upload, I am going to try to attach them in my submission on brightspace.

Now that we have arrived back at campus, I have chosen a new phenology spot.

https://www.google.com/maps/place/44°27’53.5%22N+73°12’05.0%22W/@44.4650455,-73.1993392,876m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m4!3m3!8m2!3d44.464859!4d-73.201384?entry=ttu&g_ep=EgoyMDI1MDEyMi4wIKXMDSoASAFQAw%3D%3D

This is a link to my new phenology spot on google maps. To get to my spot, I go out of my dorm (Wing/Davis/Wilks) and I walk down South Prospect Street towards the south and then I take a left at the Burlington Country Club road. I picked my spot right at the edge of the two roads near a patch of trees. I noticed once I got to this spot that there were many tracks in the snow. Since the snow has started to melt, most of the tracks are starting to disappear, but I did notice lots of dog and human tracks, plus some other tracks that look like they came from a bunny.

Above are some of the photos of tracks that I took, along with a picture of my phenology spot.

For my phenology spot, I chose a patch of grass in my backyard to sit and observe the differences between my spot and Burlington and my home.

This spot is special to me because this is where I would sit to read or do my homework when I was in high school. The trees here are much different from the ones that are near my spot in Burlington (pictured is a Magnolia and a Dogwood). Some of the trees around my new spot also still have their leaves on them, which shows me that the leaves changed later here than they did in Burlington.

My spot was in Beaver, PA near where the Beaver River feeds into the Ohio River.

The photo above is a bird’s eye drawing of my phenology spot in Centennial woods. In the middle, there is a small circle (me) and surrounding me is tall grasses and some dirt/gravel near the entrance. Past these grasses, there are tall trees fully surrounding to form a sort of circle in the middle of my spot.

During my time at my phenology spot, I did notice that majority of the leaves have fallen off of the trees, and most of the ground cover and surrounding vegetation seems to be dying off.

For my phenology project, I chose a spot in Centennial Woods past the main entrance further down Carrigan Drive. As you go further down Carrigan Dr., you reach a parking lot and the entrance to my phenology spot is towards the left of this lot. I chose this spot becuase when you enter this forest there is a meadow surrounded by many difference species of trees. This spot is perfect since there is a big mixture of conifers and deciduous trees.

As I walked through the woods, I was able to identify lots of trees and woody shrubs. This is the list of my trees and shrubs that I observed on my walk:

• Eastern White Pine
• Rough Cocklebur
• Boxelder
• Black Locust
• Locust Trees

I also thought that this location was a good choice becuase of the different types of shrubs. Since there are many different type of shrubs, we can study how the leaves change on the trees and how the shrubs change also.

Below is a picture of my location on maps: