It’s a fabulous phenology Tuesday, with nine reports to enjoy!
Verena reports from Andrew Pierson’s class at Lake of the Woods school in Baudette. During the week of February 3rd through 10th, the class saw a coyote, lots of ravens, and a snowshoe hare. They also smelled the first skunk of spring!
John thanks Verena for the report. He’s glad that the skunks aren’t passing up the opportunities afforded by the warm weather. The male skunks emerge from torpor to find females and mate. Their short legs make walking through the deep snow a challenge, so they’re likely to use roads and sidewalks: a dangerous place to be! As a result, the smell of skunk can be a common one in February.
Dylan, Isabel, and Nico bring the report from Angie Nistler’s Science Nature Adventure Program (SNAP) in Bemidji. They’ve noticed that the snow is settling quite a bit due to the warm weather. While snowshoeing, they’ve noticed deer tracks and droppings near a caged cedar. Despite the cage’s protection, the deer were still managing to nibble on the cedar. The students put a trail camera nearby where they could tell the deer were bedding down (see the photo below!). The trail camera also spotted a porcupine leaving and returning to its den. SNAP students also saw fox or coyote tracks, small animal tracks, evergreen trees still holding onto snow, mice, voles, grouse, a pileated woodpecker, and a bobcat. They also noticed the maple trees beginning to form buds! “This concludes our report: Until next time, SNAP to it, get into the wild, and be observant!
John thanks them for the report and mentions that “Snap to it” was one of his dad’s favorite expressions.
Taymon and Adeline report from Nathan Lindner’s class at Cohasset Elementary School. It was warm during the week, but it’s forecasted to cool back down soon. The students note that we have gained about 35 minutes of daylight since February 1st! By the end of the month, we’ll have gained a total of 65 minutes of sunlight. Their twig experiment is going well: the apple, willows, and tamarack have produced leaves so far. During the next few weeks, the class will be looking for House Finches, chipmunks, and Horned Larks. “Like Mr. Latimer always says, onward and awkward!”
John says, “Onward is for them, awkward is how I move! Nice job, Taymon and Adeline. Good report.” John also mentions that they saw emerging pussywillows: it’s a great time to be outside checking things out.
Noah reports from Collin Cody’s class at West Rapids Elementary School. On their phenology day on January 31st, it was ‘frigid and desolate,’ with temperatures around -10 degrees F all day. During the week, the students saw a flock of blackbirds near the Mississippi, chickadees, eagles, a weasel, and fresh deer tracks.
John thanks Noah for the report and agrees, January 31st was frigid and desolate! He’s glad that despite being stuck indoors for their phenology day, the students still found things to observe outside of class. At least February has been a bit warmer!
Sol reports from Darcie Rolfe and Leigh Jackson’s class at North Shore Community School in Duluth. They point out that February is known by the Ojibwe as the month of the sucker fish moon. Ice coverage on Lake Superior is still less than in other years: it varied from 11-14% over the last week, while the average ice coverage for this time of year is 23%. Some of the students have reported seeing glass-like ice shards along the shore. On better-frozen areas, the students were able to go skating without their warm layers, thanks to the warming weather! There is even mud in front of the school, thanks to all the melting snow. The snow, however, is still telling the stories of local wildlife: their teacher found wolf tracks, the students found a deer trail, and the class has been monitoring signs of rabbit activity at their “deer restaurant”. So far, they’ve found 441 pieces of scat, 40 nibble marks, 56 bite marks, and 15 rabbit tracks (plus some wolf tracks). Other sightings included wild turkey tracks, chickadee activity, and deer running across a field. “This concludes the phenology report: Have a great week and be observant!”
John thanks Sol for the report, and points out that the 2-3 inches of wet snow that fell in Duluth missed the Grand Rapids area. Heidi verifies that the North Shore Community School forest has a rabbit restaurant: it does! It stands to reason, as John notes, that a rabbit restaurant can also function as a fox feast.
Grayson and Rebecca report from Long Lake Conservation Center:
“It was a mild winter weather trip to Long Lake Conservation Center for us Feb 8th through Feb 10th 2023.There was a lot to see outside the Dining Hall window at the bird feeders; we saw chipmunks, gray squirrels, red squirrels, blue jays, chickadees, nuthatches, and a pileated woodpecker. Thursday evening as we started dinner we all got to watch a barred owl carefully watching the ground under the bird feeders. In porcupine news, we had the honor of announcing the winning name for the campus porcupine! Dill Prickles was the winner! We saw him (or her) several times during our trip, sleeping and eating in a red oak and climbing up into a red pine. We also saw another porcupine in the woods on our snowshoe hike. Some students saw a garter snake moving slowly on a sunny snowbank close to a building. A tiger moth caterpillar and a spider were seen on the snow. A mole was crawling around in the snow. The hole we discovered in a snowy brush area we think could be a coyote den. During our night hikes we had clear skies and could see Orion, the Pleiades, Jupiter along with some of its moons and in the southern sky several meteorites. We had great adventures in nature and we want to remind everyone to… Unplug, Get outside, and LIVE CONNECTED!”
John thanks them for the report! He was happy that they got the chance to see the Barred Owl up close and personal (as he did last week when his local owl thinned out the vole population by his bird feeder). He also notes that while chipmunks do sleep a lot in winter, they aren’t true hibernators. Instead, they go into torpor, a state of deep sleep where their temperature, heart rate, and breathing slows and they burn less energy. However, they aren’t able to store enough fat to make it through the whole winter: they need to emerge a few times to visit their winter stores of food. If they run out, they may pop above ground to scope things out, particularly on warm days. So, while it’s not unusual to see one this time of year, we won’t be seeing them regularly until the end of March or beginning of April. The garter snake, however, has no good excuse to be out and about at this time of year! John hypothesizes that it may be a male that got kicked out of its hibernacula. Garter snakes overwinter in large groups, sharing body heat underground. Whatever the reason, it can’t be a pleasant time for a snake to be aboveground! On the other end of the spectrum are Tiger Moth Caterpillars, or wooly bear caterpillars, which are pretty cold hardy. They get more active when the sun shines. John also gets a good chuckle out of the porcupine’s name, “Dill Prickle!” John’s a bit skeptical that ol’ Dill Prickle will come when you call, but I think he’s missing the point there.
Ashlynn and Kayli report from Deanne Trottier’s class at Eagle View Elementary School in Pequot Lakes. They’ve been enjoying the warm weather by spending a lot of time outside! The crusty snow means that they can walk on top of it without sinking in (most of the time). They have taken some branch samples indoors to watch the buds and flowers form: it’s a great experiment! While romping outside, they’ve seen chickadees, Bald Eagles soaring in the wind, and their Mrs. Trottier and I saw a Hairy Woodpecker while at the Back to Basics conference last weekend! “This is Ashlynn and Kayli reporting from Pequot Lakes. Enjoy the nice weather!”
John thanks them for the great report, then immediately and without provocation heckles Heidi for bringing the mood down with a bad forecast for Wednesday and Thursday. Heidi tries to deflect the blame to Tornado Bob, who wasn’t there to defend himself. That’s a lot of spice for 7 in the morning!
Hazel, Timmy, Kip, Finley, and George report from Leona Cichy’s class at Roots and Wings Forest School in New York Mills. They’ve seen a lot of swans! At first, they thought they were Tundra Swans. As they (adorably) point out, Tundra Swans are the largest waterfowl in North America, with wingspans of 5-6 feet. They migrate 4,000 miles each year! Now, however, they think they were Trumpeter Swans. Trumpeter swans have a longer, flatter head and honk instead of hoot. The students have also seen deer, eagles, rabbits, and squirrels. One student even saw deer blood, fur, and a deer leg: they think a bobcat took out a deer! Next week, they’re going to report on the backyard bird count. “Thanks for listening! Stay wild!”
John thinks “Stay wild!” is great advice! He is so impressed that they were able to form a hypothesis (the birds were Tundra Swans), investigate the swans’ migration patterns, physical description, and calls, then determine that the swans were actually Trumpeters. “That’s how you do things!” John enthuses. “You do a little research and then you, go, ‘Well, you know what? Maybe not. Maybe it’s that.’ And so, I’m proud of you guys. That was very nicely done.” [Making John Latimer proud: life goal of 3/4ths of KAXE listeners.] John also points out that it’s well within a Bobcat’s capabilities to take down a deer: pretty astonishing, and pretty cool!
Kaia and Emi report from Michelle Martin’s class at Prairie Creek Community School in Northfield. They, too, have had a warm week. The sun was shining, snow was melting, and it even smelled like spring! They are hearing the “Oh Ricky” song of the cardinal in the morning, as well as the “Pump Handle” song of the Blue Jay and the “Phoebe” song of the Chickadee. It’s pretty quiet before the sun comes up, though, with only a few crows calling. The students have seen a flock of robins, a Saw-whet Owl, a Great Horned Owl, rabbits, and white squirrels! They’ve also heard grouse drumming and nuthatches calling. Emi says, “We finally have something to share about plants!” They’ve spotted some grassy spots in the fields and the buds seem to be getting bigger on the tips of branches. Some trees seem to have more red on the branches as well, and there’s sap on the pine trees. They’re looking forward to tapping the maple trees soon! “This has been Prairie Creek Community School. One more step along the phenology journey!”
John thanks Kaia and Emi for the report, and agrees that spring has a distinctive smell! He can’t quite describe it either, but always looks forward to it. He’s particularly impressed by their observations of spring bird songs and the Saw-whet Owl and Great Horned Owl. Like the students, he’s also looking forward to buds bursting and spring moving forward! They’ll see it before the folks in Grand Rapids, so they can forecast the good news.
Remember that you can add your voice to this list! Get in touch with me (smitchell@kaxe.org), John Latimer (jlatimer@kaxe.org), or text "phenology" to 218-326-1234.
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Funding for this project was provided by the Minnesota Environment and Natural Resources Trust Fund as recommended by the Legislative-Citizen Commission on Minnesota Resources (LCCMR).
