Aurora Waasakone Community of Learners in Bemidji
“Hi, this is AWCL conservation crew with the phenology reports.
“Poppy noticed tamaracks are still bright yellow and orange. She saw a dead porcupine on the road and felt a shift in the temperatures. It's colder now than last week.
“Avi has seen less flowers.
“I saw that the rabbits are still out from last week.
“Kelly saw the Dark-eyed Junkos are still here, swans flying south, and that lilacs are in second bloom.
“I saw leaves are gone from my crabapple tree.
“Audra saw a raccoon, and they saw a red squirrel - maybe the last one.
“Nova's birch tree blew over in the wind and Gabby noticed pine trees are losing their third-year needles.
“Onesel said that she noticed that outside it was cold and windy.
“I noticed that the leaves are less crunchy, which is a real bummer because I like crunching leaves.
“Cora noticed that the rain is less frequent and its shorter and softer.
“The animals are getting their winter fur, and most trees have lost their leaves.
“This is AWCL conservation crew. Thanks for listening.”
North Shore Community School near Duluth
“Hello from North Shore Community School on the north shore of Lake Superior. This is the phenology report for the weeks of October 11-25, 2025. My name is Rozalyn, and I am your phenologist for this week!
“This week we lost 20 minutes of daylight and Mrs. Rolfe needed a flashlight for the first time during her morning walks this week. Remember that on Sunday, Nov. 2, it is daylight savings time and we all need to set our clocks back an hour. The time changes at 2:00 am to 1:00 am this Sunday .
“Mrs. Rolfe picked the last of her apples on her apple trees on Sunday, Oct. 25. On Thursday, Oct. 30, Mrs. Rolfe’s class was out eradicating some buckthorn when they noticed that some of ostrich ferns had green fiddle heads that could be seen poking out of the ground.
“Valerie noticed that 2% of leaves are on the trees and 98% of leaves are on the ground. Iljia and I saw green little plants sprouting in the creek, but only in one section: They seemed to be growing in shallow water on the side of the creek on Oct 31.
“On Monday, Oct. 27, Ms. Gallagher’s class saw a flock of Snow Buntings outside of the greenhouse. They counted 16 and watched them fly on top of the roof and then disappear. On Oct. 31, near shelter 2, Aurora heard a medium pitched, hollow plunking sound likely coming from a bird.
“On Sunday, Oct. 26, Ms. Urban saw a Franklin’s ground squirrel that was running around at Hawk Ridge. Sometime soon the ground squirrels will start hibernating. On Monday, Oct. 27, Ms. Markon’s class watched a squirrel run up a tree and into a hole! Moments later, the squirrel left the hole and climbed back down. They watched as the squirrel went in and out multiple times. They think the squirrel was hiding food inside for winter.
"Mrs. Rolfe saw two mosquitoes outside her kitchen window on Oct. 30. She was surprised by this as she hadn’t seen a mosquito for quite a while. Iljia and I saw little waterbugs down in the creek. They all seemed to be gathering in the deeper water, while the minnows were gathering in the shallow water, on Oct. 31.
"As the season of fall is coming to a close, please consider not getting rid of all your leaves that have fallen in your yard. Leaves that "litter" our yards provide hiding spaces and insulation in the winter for insects and a host of small animals. Also in the spring, leaves start breaking down, releasing nitrogen and other nutrients back into the soil making a natural fertilizer.
“This concludes the phenology report. Have a great week and be observant!”
Long Lake Conservation Center near Palisade
This report is brought to you by Dominic, Karina and the students from St. Odilia School in Shoreview.
“During our trip to Long Lake Conservation Center from Oct. 29-31, the high temperature was 48 degrees and the low was 28.
“It was raining oak leaves during our hike through the woods, and snowing golden tamarack needles in the bog. There was lots of pineapple weed blooming in the thicket and along the trail.
“One of the highlights of the trip was finding wolf scat that was filled with rabbit fur.
“A nursery web spider joined us during Wilderness Meal. We learned that nursery web spiders are venomous, but their venom isn’t harmful to humans. They are called nursery spiders because females make big, tented nursery webs.
“We also saw otters, beavers and muskrats on the lake and lots of deer in the woods and near the bog. Surprisingly, we saw a leopard frog hopping away from the group. He’ll be needing to settle in for the winter pretty soon.
“We had a great time exploring nature and we want to remind everyone to unplug, get outside and LIVE CONNECTED!”
Little Falls Middle School
“This is Gavin and Emmett reporting from Little Falls Middle School. This is our phenology report for the week of Nov. 2.”
“There have been multiple reports of small groups of swans in fields.
“In the evenings, you can spot male Linden Looper moths on your windows. The females are wingless and hoping the males will find them.
“There have been numerous woodpecker sightings this week, with Pileated, Downy, and Hairy Woodpeckers visiting our feeders.”
“We had a report of a single monarch butterfly last week.
“A classmate was able to find and photograph a Redbellied snake last weekend during our warmer weather.
“We are still seeing humongous flocks of Red-winged Blackbirds in our area.
“There was a young Bald Eagle and 3 crows that were feeding together on a roadkill deer carcass.
“We had a trail cam image of a “unicorn” deer that was just holding one spike antler. We are guessing the other was damaged while still in velvet.
“We did have another sighting of a black bear on Oct. 28.
“On Nov. 1, we saw our first Snow Buntings. There were 3 different flocks, all spotted on the sides of roads.
“Our tamaracks are all bright yellow right now, and add a splash of color to our wet areas.
“There was a sighting of a Northern Harrier as it hunted in an open field.
“That is our report for this week, until next week, keep exploring, keep discovering, and keep connecting with the great outdoors.”
Linwood Elementary School
"Greetings from the fourth-grade Phenology Team in the Linwood School Forest. This is Colton, Charlee, and Sophie reporting on our observations from the week ending Oct. 31.
“This week, we observed that all the walnuts surrounding our walnut trees have disappeared. We wonder where they went.
“Both our silver maple and red maple have small little buds on them and are about 90% bare of leaves.
“We also saw that our lilac is mostly bare except for a few flowers that bloomed late this fall. Why are there only a few flowers in the fall?
“In the forest, we saw that our cottonwood is still holding onto some of its small waxy leaves, but they have changed to brown and yellow.
“That is all from the Linwood School Forest, and remember, there is no place like Linwood!”
Rockford Middle School
“Hello, this is Jay, Oliver, Owen, Mario, and Crosby. We are reporting on the week of Friday, Oct.24 - Tuesday, Oct. 28 from Mrs. Korzendorfer’s sixth-grade class at Rockford Middle School.
“We have had highs of 60s and lows of 30s with a good amount of sunlight and precipitation.
“On Friday, Oct. 24, we had our first hard frost at 29 degrees. The plants and grass were covered with frost and reminded us of winter and Jack Frost. Some of the lilac plants have bloomed again and survived the low temperatures.
“There have been lots of sightings of coyotes in neighborhoods. They are coming out of their dens because they are claiming territory.
:Shout out to John Latimer for coming out to Rockford to take a walk in the forest and teach us about phenology. We learned that dogwood leaves can tear and still stay together.
“That is all for our October phenology report. See you next time. Bye.”
What have you seen out there? Let us know: email us at comments@kaxe.org or text us at 218-326-1234.
That does it for this week! For more phenology, subscribe to our Season Watch Newsletter and podcast or visit the Season Watch Facebook page.
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).
