Category: The Nature of Phenology

The Nature of Phenology 12/8/18

Producers/Hosts: Hazel Stark and Joe Horn

Bees in Winter

Photos, a full transcript, references, contact information, and more available at thenatureofphenology.wordpress.com.

There are many adaptations that insects in cold climates employ to ensure the success of their species through a northern winter. Some leave only hardy eggs behind and count on their winter survival, with all adults dying off. Others tuck themselves away in protected areas, perhaps underground or behind some tree bark, and rely on their amazing capacity to produce their own kind of antifreeze so their cells don’t get damaged from sub-freezing temperatures. Honeybees and bumblebees, however, each do something quite different.

The Nature of Phenology 12/1/18

Producers/Hosts: Hazel Stark and Joe Horn

Muskrats

Photos, a full transcript, references, contact information, and more available at thenatureofphenology.wordpress.com.

Muskrats build little pop-up shelters on frozen waterways where they can catch their breaths and eat. They chisel through the ice and push mud and plant matter up through it to make a miniature shelter that does just the trick. Little did we know that ice fishermen were just copying muskrats when they bring their shacks onto the ice in the winter.

The Nature of Phenology 11/24/18

Producers/Hosts: Hazel Stark and Joe Horn

Woodpeckers

Photos, a full transcript, references, contact information, and more available at thenatureofphenology.wordpress.com.

Most people know them due to their noisy evidence. Whether chattering loudly, slamming on a telephone box in the spring, or pounding into a hollow tree in hopes of finding some bugs to eat, woodpeckers are pretty charismatic. But why don’t they get concussions from all their head-banging?

The Nature of Phenology 11/17/18

Producers/Hosts: Hazel Stark and Joe Horn

River Otters

Photos, a full transcript, references, contact information, and more available at thenatureofphenology.wordpress.com.

November: it’s not my favorite month. As a person who has, in some people’s eyes, an unreasonable appreciation for all things outdoors, this is saying a lot. Despite all of November’s shortfalls, over the past few years I have figured out something that I can appreciate about this time of year: river otters.

The Nature of Phenology 11/10/18

Producers/Hosts: Hazel Stark and Joe Horn

Heavy Frosts

Photos, a full transcript, references, contact information, and more available at thenatureofphenology.wordpress.com.

Frost can certainly skate fairy-like across our glass windows but can also drill its way like thousands of microscopic daggers into the fragile bodies of unprotected insects, breaching cell membranes as it goes.

The Nature of Phenology 11/3/18

Producers/Hosts: Hazel Stark and Joe Horn

Hackmatacks

Photos, a full transcript, references, contact information, and more available at thenatureofphenology.wordpress.com.

Hackmatacks are a coniferous needle-bearing tree that, from a quick glance, can blend in with the rest of its pokey kin in our northern forest. A closer look and feel, however, reveals that the stems are dotted with feathery crowns of soft needles that sit atop short spurs on the fine twigs of the tree. But kinship with its coniferous comrades ends here.

The Nature of Phenology 10/27/18

Producers/Hosts: Hazel Stark and Joe Horn

Peak of Beaver Activity

Photos, a full transcript, references, contact information, and more available at thenatureofphenology.wordpress.com.

Late October is the peak of beaver activity. Busily they work to put on the final layers of mud and sticks to their lodges and to fill their larders full of fresh branches and twigs to ensure they are warm, secure, and well fed for the long winter ahead of them. All this work must be done before the rivers, ponds, and streams freeze over and lock the beavers into a winter of either swimming in the water beneath the ice or snoozing in their lodges.

The Nature of Phenology 10/20/18

Producers/Hosts: Hazel Stark and Joe Horn

Witch Hazel

Photos, a full transcript, references, contact information, and more available at thenatureofphenology.wordpress.com.

Growing along the sprawling branches of this shrub that can grow up to fifteen feet tall are small flowers with thin, crinkly petals reminiscent of one-inch strips of yellow tinsel arranged haphazardly around a center point—as if a spider were frozen mid-gallop, legs splayed in every direction in an effort to move fast despite an excess of legs. Its blooming time coinciding with Halloween and its spider-like yellow flowers make “witch hazel” an appropriate name for this unique plant.