In the first time visiting my location since last semester, I noticed a number of changes to the landscape, while other aspects have stayed constant.
At this point in the year, the leaves have fallen from all deciduous trees in, leaving just the needles from the few Hemlock and Eastern White Pine trees in my location. I also noticed that the bark of all the trees seemed to be a much deeper brown than it was a couple months ago. I don’t really have an explanation for this, but I would guess that the bark has become saturated with moisture from snowfall, or it was simply a trick of the lighting.
On the ground of the forest, there is a solid layer of snow, about a foot in depth. I noticed many animal tracks in this snow (pictured below) and was able to identify one set as a ground squirrel, but there were a few other sets I was unsure of. The other effect I think the snow had was dampening sound. While noise from the nearby road was still audible, I felt very attuned to sounds in the forest, such as bird calls in the canopy, and the rustling of branches as animals moved around.
Overall, I think winter sheds a different light on the forest, changing my focus as I walked through it, when compared to in warmer months. My eyes were drawn towards smaller movements near the ground, as opposed to the bustling canopy of the summer and falls months. The forest comes alive in different ways.
