This photo, taken in March at our 'Sugaring' lab at the Cornell Cooperative Exchange depicts an animal sign. The two large holes in the tree are most likely from a woodpecker (species unknown). Here's a question: why exactly to woodpeckers peck? These species of bird are unique in that they like to eat insects that burrow in the bark of trees, such as termites or other borers. They also may raise their young in the bark of trees, so larger holes may indicate so. Contrast to what may be common belief, woodpeckers do not actually eat the wood, they are just trying to get around it.

Deciduous hardwood forest and river habitat
Colton has all these trails that walk right past the Raquette. The river is quite beautiful with the trails that run along it into the forest. The views are amazing and during the winter the views are perfect with the boulders covered in ice and snow. The location looks great, and has pretty great views of the woods and river even when frozen. I took this photo because the view was beautiful at the time. The Panorama looked really nice that day, and the view is just naturally beautiful.

River habitat

Deciduous Forrest/ River environment

This is a photo of an animal sign, and more specifically the tracks of a Fisher. The Fisher has a similar size to a domestic cat and has dark, thick fur which helps regulate the mammal's internal temperature in the winter time. Similar to a Lynx, the Fisher's paws are disproportionally larger than its legs, which help it walk easier on snow -- kind of like snow shoes. Although this photo does not depict it very well, the paws of a fisher have claws which also help it navigate through its environment.

This photo was taken at one of our labs at Stone Valley while walking along the trail. The trail is very scenic and runs just alongside the Raquette River. On this particular Wednesday afternoon, the snow was falling heavily and the entire trail was covered with a fresh foot-high layer of white snow. This area connects the Adirondack Mountains with the St. Lawrence Lowlands. The trail deviates in elevation and highlights some of the more aggressive parts of the Raquette River.

This photo depicts movement of water as it descends in a waterfall from higher to lower elevation. These falls are 40 ft tall and 100 ft wide. In this specific photo, taken in mid-February, much of the water was still frozen, but there was still large amounts of water flowing. These falls were most likely formed as a result of water flowing over different layers of rocks which have different erosion patterns. Over time the earth underneath the water gets steeper and steeper until, eventually, a falling out may occur (which causes the drop).

I took this picture on the side of the road on my way back to Canton after a weekend at home. The weather in the morning had been very gray and cloudy, but the sun came out and it made everything so much brighter and more colorful I had to pull over to enjoy it. It was a field full of dead cornstalks, but I really like the bright color against the white snow which is then lined by the black pavement. Almost 80% of the corn produced in New York is for processing leaving less than 25% for fresh market. It is one of the most important crops in the state.

This photo was taken at Stone Valley, a recreation area with a few miles of ADK trails on both sides of the river. The river here flows against the bedrock "grain" which can make interesting marks (like potholes) in the rock. Both sides along the river are heavily wooded. I find this photo interesting because of the contrast in trees - bright green where the sun is and almost black in the shadows. I also like how powerful the water looked at this waterfall.