On the 21^st of October, there was a drastic decrease in temperature within the Berkshire area. This drop in temperature had a great affect on the plant life within Williams Town, including Tyler House Woods. On the night of October 21^st, the temperature dropped to twenty seven degrees Fahrenheit, while previously it had been in the forties.

The next day on the 22^nd of October, we observed that the trees within and around Williams College that had once been green before, were now rapidly changing color, some even losing their leaves entirely. The extreme cold triggered the trees to lose their leaves. Therefore, we saw a great number of trees whose top leaves were beginning to change color and fall to the ground.

In my own site, I found that the ground was covered with even more dry, yellow leaves. Most of the trees were turning a bright yellow color. There were also some bushes turning a reddish color, but the predominant color was yellow. For the most part, the trees were beginning to turn color at the tops of their branches before any color change occurred on the lower branches.

The leaves that had fallen also revealed some of the animals that had once remained hidden. As I walked through the woods, I spotted at least four grey squirrels and three chipmunks. I could hear the high pitched squeal of the chipmunks as they raced across the fallen logs and up the sides of the maples. One was even rummaging through the leaves as it attempted to bury one of the nuts it had found on the forest floor.

While approaching my site, I noticed that there was a lot of activity from both the wildlife and people within the area. I could hear crickets in the nearby field, two squirrels ran about one of the nearby trees, a man and his dog played fetch not too far off, and two cars made their way up to Tyler House. It seemed that there was more activity near my site than usual. I usually arrive at Tyler Woods around 4:00 or 5:00 o’clock. Is it possible that an hour or two could change the amount of activity in Tyler? I may, in the future, try to arrive at my site at different times in order to determine whether or not time has a significant impact on the amount of activity within Tyler Woods.

Besides the maple trees, the pine trees within my site were also losing some of their needles, remnants of which could be seen discarded around the base of their trunks. The needles were mostly gone from the lower branches. There were also more cones on the ground than there were before. This may have been the reason for why there were so many squirrels and chipmunks in my site today.

Although a large number of trees were changing color, there were still many trees which were still holding on to their green leaves. I wonder why these trees have not changed color. Will they begin to change color, or will the leaves drop before hand?

From observing my site after the sudden drop in temperature, I have seen how changes in temperature can affect when a tree decides to shed its leaves. It will be interesting to see how the trees will continue to change as the temperature continues to drop. How long will it take and at what temperature will it be when the other trees begin to lose their leaves?