Category: Updates

Observations

The biggest observation was how spring has truly sprung! Everything was green, leaves were growing, and the algae was growing back in the ponds. Also in the ponds, the reeds were growing new stalks as their yellowed dead ones continued to wither. There were so many flowering trees and things that I didn’t even know had flowers, like wild garlic, were flowering.

Notable animal sightings include a frog and a red-winged black bird, along with the normal fare of chipmunks and sparrows.

Nature and Culture

During my first visit to Redstone Quarry, we stopped to pet two Australian Shepards, whose owner was a man in is probably 50s. Now, on my last official visit, we ran into the same man. He didn’t remember us, which is understandable, but we were petting his dogs and he started asking us questions about whether we went to UVM, was this for a project, and he asked (prompted by my Grateful Dead shirt) if I listened to the Dead. Nope the shirt was just a hand-me-down, but he said that it looked super cool and went great with my pants and, “you’re like Woodstock live!” Which is like the best compliment I’ve ever received. He told us he walks his dogs there about twice a day.

I’m including this to show the human aspect of Redstone Quarry. The fact that it exists is because of human interaction. It is why Redstone Campus is named what it is. The rocks that form the very foundation of the land we live on continue to be present above ground in our culture. The man that walks his dog there twice a day is very much so apart of Redstone Quarry. People that enjoy the land have a connection to it, including me. I don’t think I would consider myself a part of that place because for me it feels temporary, I know I’m going home for break every so often. My home is not on this ground, but maybe that will change as I spend more time here. 🙂

I had a lot of fun doing this! I didn’t observe as much as I wanted to (I only had 9 observations), but I still enjoyed taking pictures of pretty plants :). I did all of my observations on campus just walking to meals and stuff.

I’m like, really bad, at remembering plant species and identifying them, so I really appreciated that iNaturalist is designed to identify plants for you. It was fun to see the Latin names of plants that I see every day. I also had 4 observations IDed by gsexauer and jamiegriffiths so shoutout to them. It was also super fun looking at everyone else’s observations from our lab, especially Ethan with his recordings of birds, those were awesome.

I only had 9 observations so I am going to include all of them and the IDs if they have them, and I will specify whether it was IDed by iNaturalist or another person.

It was a cloudy day at Redstone Quarry but it was still in the prettiest state that I have ever seen it in. The most prominent change was the lack of ice. Previously, the two ponds, the cliff face, and many parts of the exposed rock were covered in ice, varying in thickness.

Signs of Life on Mars

(Mars is made of red-stone. Ha ha.)

Even as there was major change from the last time I visited, there were signs of things to come everywhere. From the yellowed dead reeds there was new green shoots popping up. In the fall, the ponds were covered in algae and there are new patches of it growing. Of course the leaves are starting to grow in, and buds and pinecones are appearing steadily.

Animals Friends

I saw and heard a variety of animals. I saw and heard many birds, including: a black capped chickadee, a cardinal, a tufted titmouse, a song sparrow, a seagull, and a house finch. I also saw the typical fare of squirrels and new gnats.

WARNING: very gross!

When walking around, on the Northern Red Cedars I noticed strange orange things growing. They were on so many trees. They’re so nasty looking, but they’re a major find so I must include them. I found out using INaturalist that it is juniper apple rust. It’s gross, I hate it, but here are the pictures!

Pretty flowers to cleanse your eyes:

My friends and I decided to spend some time walking downtown and then walking down to the water front. The lake has lots of ice at the shores, which we estimated to be about 2 inches thick right on the shore. The ice went out about 50-ish feet. We also walked to the ECHO center, where in the space where the big research boat goes the entire thing was covered in ice. At the back wall the ice rolled towards the lake, like it hit the back and was frozen in place as it started to move back towards the lake. It looked super cool. As you moved away from the back wall, the ice became fractured from more intense water movement and increasing March temperatures.

In the lake there is wooden posts, which are almost bulbous at the bottom because of the ice that has formed right above the water level.

Also at the ECHO center were some duckies! They were sitting in a tide pool on the shore in front of the ferry and we watched them paddle out to the open lake. There were both males and females, all with beautiful colored feathers. We also saw some seagulls flying around the lake, doing seagull things.

On the walk along the beach we went under the deck on the walkway, where a pigeon almost hit us in the face. The snow around the waterfront had lots of dog paw prints and some human prints. There was not much else in terms of animal life, except for some squirrels.

It was really nice to be back at my phenology spot!

Obviously the biggest difference was snow, but the pond had also frozen; however, below the few inches of snow it was really more like slush, made green by the thick layer of algae present in the fall. The cliff face was covered by ice in many places and all the tree branches were barren and brittle, save for the evergreens. The most abundant birds were woodpeckers and cardinals.

There was a lot of the same tracks in different places around the quarry. Fox was the most common, after dogs. We also spotted what looks like a raccoon paw print!

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Brooks. Polmen (September 10, 2020). lecture 4 ‘Centennial woods’ https://bb.uvm.edu/webapps/blackboard/execute/content/file?cmd=view&content_id=_3493008_1&course_id=_148708_1

Wood. D (December 18, 2018). Finding Burlington’s Past in Redstone Quarry https://enjoyburlington.com/redstone-quarry/

Photos: Boles. G (September 2020). Redstone Quarry, VT Boles. G (October 2020). Redstone Quarry, VT Boles. G (November 2020). Redstone Quarry, VT Boles. G (November 2020). The Great Swamp, Chatham, NJ

Redstone Quarry, originally an area called Willow’s Ledge, became a quarry in the 1860s and was first used to provide materials for a church. In 1889, lumber baron Andrew Addison Buell, used Monkton Quartzite (which is red, hence the name) from the quarry to build his house. The Buell family gave their estate to the University of Vermont in the early 1900s. This includes what is now Redstone campus and Redstone Quarry, which is no longer used for commercial purposes and is now one of UVM’s, “Natural Areas; Designated For Education and Scientific Purposes.” An example of one such purpose is this project!

My place I picked to study in hometown is along the trail of the Great Swamp National Wildlife Refuge. The swamp is an over 7,000 acres wildlife refuge, with trails and education centers. The swamp is also considered the focal point of its watershed, because almost all water passes through there. 

It is a beautiful area that is used often for education. I remember going on field trips in first grade and in my senior year I did an outdoor lab where we measured the swamp’s water quality. The swamp is a very important respite when you live in such a densely populated area.

During months of high precipitation, the swamp land floods, covering the entire area in a layer of water. I think that is one of the reasons that some of the most abundant plants are tall grasses. It was difficult to identify any trees because almost all had lost their leaves, but the bed of decomposing leaves on the ground was helpful. There is a lot of maples and oaks. Another plant I saw was algae in a pond. I don’t know if it the exact same algae as in Burlington, but it looked very similar. My place in Burlington also had a pond, but it was vernal, whereas I know that that pond is year-round because I have been to the swamp dozens of times in my life, during all seasons. 

It was much quieter than Redstone Quarry, most likely because a lot of animals have migrated or are preparing for winter. However, I did see a chickadee, a woodpecker, a squirrel, and a hawk. I heard other birds, including an owl! The swamp is mostly flat compared to the quarry and there is certainly less rock.

Since my last time visiting my place at the end of October, not much has changed. The water level of the stream, pond, and vernal pool was lower, but other than that it looked pretty much the same. Due to the warm temperatures we’ve been having there hasn’t been any dramatic increase in leaves falling off trees. However, there did seem to be less animals, or maybe we were moving around too much and scared them away.

Here’s some pretty pictures of the sunset I watched on top of the cliff:

I went back to Redstone Quarry this past Friday; it had been raining for a few days prior so the brook and vernal pool there had filled up. For the pool specifically, the new water elevated it over a foot and a half off the ground, allowing algae to grow on the surface of the water. The ground was muddy, moss squished when you walked over it, and I almost slipped on the exposed rock multiple times. Since we are well into fall, many of the trees had lost their leaves, so the environment looked more barren and detritus was everywhere you stepped. Another notable change was an explosion of wild garlic on almost every piece of dirt, adding the scent of garlic to the petrichor and fall air.

The most obvious evidence of wildlife was seeing animals directly, like chipmunks, mosquitoes, and many different birds: blue jays, crows, chickadees, geese, and tufted tit mouses. Other bird calls were heard, but I did not really find more discreet signs of wildlife like tracks or scat. I did see a feather on the ground, but in general, if I wanted evidence of wildlife I had to listen.