A UVM blog Redstone Pines Phenology

Throughout the semester, my sit spot over in the Redstone Pines has gone from being covered in snow and all of the leaves gone from the trees to now. The semester has come to an end the air is full of spring with trees budding and the grass growing. The Redstone Pines are full of animals from crows flying over to now colorful Bluejays, Robbins, and even grey squirrels rummaging for their food. There is a big boulder on the north end of the pines that I have had hundreds of minutes on as well as a bench on the south side where I can observe the forest from grass. The minor landmarks are the old tree roots that scatter the forest floor that I have walked over hundreds of times but never touched. To me, finding a spot in nature where you can sit on and reflect upon the nature around you has really intertwined with the culture around me. At UVM almost every kid I have met said that they would prefer to be outside rather than inside. I would tell them about this Blog we are making and explain to them how going and sitting in nature is relaxing and peaceful to the mind and body and they would be jealous. After doing a final reflection of the place I would most definitely consider myself a part of that place. I have spent a bunch of time analyzing the nature around me in the pines and I can always look at that rock and know I have a special place.

During the week of the Bio Blitz Challenge, I mainly explored all over campus from Redstone down to Centennial Woods. I did go into the city of Burlington too but it was in the evening and it started to get dark fast which made it hard to document using the iNaturalist app due to the photo quality being too dark. This challenge allowed me to open my eyes and see all of the plants starting to bud for the spring. While taking pictures of the plants, trees, and flowers, on iNatrualist it was a very positive experience however I feel like I can connect more to nature when not using the app and trying to figure it out on my own. While exploring I saw a number of flowers blooming such as Dandelions, Tulips and Daffodils. I also noticed lots of tree buds starting to pop. Most focal species such as Sugarmaples, American Beech, Oak, ect are all starting to either bud or starting to flower. I am not exactly sure the amount of species I saw however it was a lot. From the gardens around campus where flowers have been planted in, to natural plants blooming I saw it all. I found it interesting that places of the same elevation had similar reports however in higher elevations the blooms are further behind due to the temperature.

Today at around 3pm on Monday, March 25, 2024, I visited the Redstone Pines on my way back from class. I immediately noticed that the sun was a lot higher in the sky than it usually was since its been so cloudy out recently. As I walked into the woods along the tree line there was budding on lots of little undergrowth. I noticed rabbit tracks going into the thicket and notices that it stopped to possibly feed on these sprouts to hold itself over for the spring. I also noticed a squirrel or chipmonk tracks that I was unable to confirm due to the increase in temperature melting the snow. The animal come down from the Eastern White Pine tree and dug up the snow to the dirt level looking for food. Overall spring is in the air and the animals are starting to feed more getting ready for the spring hunt for food.

Febuary 18, 2024

For this assignment, I traveled down to the Burlington Harbor Marina where I work over the summer to check in on the lake to see if its freezing around the docks and also too look for tracks closer to the water. I remeber over the summer seeing Raccons over by the dumpsters and along the bank and sure enough I found Racoon tracks. I was unable to locate there living area however I noticed they must have been foraging for food in the trash from the near by Restourant. Two of the tracks were bigger (3″) and then the other track that was walking off to the side was a smaller 2″ track which I think is the younger Raccon with its family. Unfortunetly the cold weather killed the battery on my iPhone within the first few minutes of tracking but I was able to take a picture of the size of the two Racoons prints. I never saw the Raccons but a couple days prior to me exploring down by the water, as I was walking back from the Grundle I saw a lone Raccon sneaking along side the back of a building. I think this means that the Raccons are starting to get ready for spring and are scrounging more for food which would explain the recent activity of them in Burlington.

After not being at my sit spot in the Redstone Pines for over a month it was nice to be back however not much changed which I was pleased to see, since I liked my spot previously. There was no snow on my sit rock so it was a dry sit however there was no sign of wildlife around other then in the sky. There were still the thousands of black crows that flew over like they do every time so it was nice to see that again. I was hoping there would still be snow on the ground to try to identify some tracks but there was none to be found. The Pines still had all of there pine needles and they were still the same dark shade of green as I remembered. A physical change I saw which I was disappointed to find was a lot more trash than I remembered. There was a couple of plastic water bottles laying around my spot so I made sure to pick those up. Hopefully this wont happen again.

As I was sitting in the center of the Redstone pines I found a rock formation which I sat on top of for the 15 minutes. As I looked around I noticed that not much has changed with the Eastern White Pines they still have a lot of pine needles on them however they dropped most of their pinecones. As I looked around more I saw that all of the maple trees dropped pretty much all of their red/orange leaves and were bare. There also wasn’t very much wild life, I only saw one squirrel and a couple black crows flew over the top of me. Since its predominately all Pines in the Redstone Pines all of the ground cover was pine needles however the bits of grass around were all turning brown and dying.

I returned to my original sit spot over at the Redstone Pines to see about 2 inches of snow on the ground! There are still pine needles on the Eastern White Pines but on the maples on the outskirts there were no more leaves on them. The dead leaves that fell off the trees have all been covered in snow and are starting to decompose. I saw a bunch of squirrel or chipmunk as well as some crow or other bird species tracks in the snow but other than that there wasn’t much wildlife and animal sign to be found. The animal activity has started to slow down because the chipmunks that used to hang out there are getting ready for hibernation.

Over all of the sits at the Redstone Pines my favorite aspect about them is how on the hot days it provides shade and coolness and in the winter when it snows the grass underneath the pines stay out and provide more warmth then out in the open. I also loved seeing all the small game animals running up and down the trees as well as seeing the birds fly over my head.

This farm in Charlotte, Vermont is my Grandfathers farm where he raised dairy cows on it his whole life however now he is retired and no longer has cows but now me and my dad have converted this land into our Deer hunting ground. These fields are now over grown and are full of White Tail deer. Over this break it was rifle season for hunting and on that pin is where my tree stand is so I can see a full view of the over grown field as well as the thick brush/Eastern White Pine forrest behind me. Its much similar to the Redstone pines because the only trees left that have leaf cover on them are the Eastern White Pines which is where the White tail deer like to bed which is why this makes in a perfect hunting spot. Through out the week of sitting in my spot consistently while hunting I noticed more and more snowfall which allowed me to see where the deer and other smaller game such as squirrels, coyotes, birds, etc where living. I also noticed that the pine needles started to fall off more and more than prior days while the other leaves from the maples and oaks around me were married underneath the snow which I could no longer see which is very similar to what’s happening at the Redstone Pines. Unfortunately I forgot to photograph a gift in my spot so I was unable to document that part of the assignment.

The Redstone Pines is a place close to my dorm on Simpson 3 however it’s a special place I would like to visit more. It’s located on the southern side of campus next to the Redstone green parallel to south prospect street. I chose this spot because transportation is hard for me to get around to farther places in Burlington however the Redstone pines seems like a special place I would like to visit more on campus. It’s full of life from hammockers to wildlife and everything in between. Its canopy is full of eastern white pines and loaded with pinecones, grass, and rocks on the floor.

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