tree tracking project!

so, a project that i have wanted to do, and am starting to work on, is a photo project of sorts..  that has to do with trees!  it has to do with tracking the development of trees through the seasons.. or something like that?  so the first part of it is taking pictures of buds.. and then i would take pictures of any leaves or flowers in the spring and the summer and the coloured leaves in the fall.  i guess i would also want to take pictures of the bark and the branches and stuff like that..  all the parts of the trees..
why?  why the hell not.  well... cause i want to that's why!
i dont necessarily know what all the trees are at this point, i might be able to find out when they get leaves, but i gotta start taking pictures now right?  i happened upon a wonderful resource though!  it's a great use of that silly phone thing and it uses up all my data that i dont really use anyway, so i suppose that's just fine..  it's just about the bestest thing ever!  it's iNaturalist.org ! it's a site/app/community/wonderful thing where you can add pictures of nature you see around you, not just plants but animals, anything living really and not only that but amazing smart people will help you identify whatever it is that you have found!  you can just add stuff online, but if you use the app it can geolocate you and map out where you found everything, and seeing as i want to go back and take pictures of these things throughout the year, that's pretty darn convenient!  the only bad thing is i'm taking pictures of things with my phone, which is doing an ok job, but well..  not the best.  but i've just been adding it with phone pics and then taking additional pictures with my camera as well.  my camera has been being a stupid pain with taking close up pictures though, it's been not wanting to focus for me and it's just annoying the hell out of me, so bleh.  maybe if i clean the lense???  i dont know.. 
anyway..  here are some bud pictures from my phone! to start with..

 

there are lots of these down by the river that i noticed, big trees.. but i just cant recall what they looked like before?  last year in the summer.. what was there i mean.. 

 

i think this is siberian elm, but i am not so sure.. 

 

this is some kinda poplar..

 

i think this is also a poplar, but i'm not sure..  it's something different, but from what i remember all the trees in that area are some kinda poplar, so ????

 

these were some kinda bush down by the river that i didnt know but was intrigued by their red branches, but thanks to that inaturalist, someone let me know that it's some kinda dogwood

 

this is a schubert choke cherry, or at least that's what i call it..  it's the one with purple leaves

 

this is a mountain ash

 

this is a lilac bush

 

this is a red maple, i was talking to the lady who's yard it was in and she told me that she planted it from seed

 

i think this is a birch tree

 

this is one of those columnar poplars or something like that..  

 

this is my nanking cherry! 

 

this is a tree that i grew up calling a weeping willow.. but it's not a weeping willow, it's not even a willow.. but i forget what it's called..  it's got long hanging sorta branches though..  and that's the trunk in the back

 

i held this steady to take a picture of it and it sapped all over me!

and well, that's all i got for now.  i know i will take more though, cause i know of several other trees that i know what they are that i want to take pictures of, like..  oak, elm, hawthorn, russian olive, buckeye, ash, box elder, my apple tree, amur maple, linden..  so there's that!
but then again life might start sucking and i might not finish this until another year..  but oh well!