North Star Elementary School in Virginia
“This is Charles, Aiden, Eli, Reese, Aniyah, Gino, and Maddie with a report from North Star Elementary on Nov. 6, 2025.
“We saw the first snow of the season on Oct. 22.
“This morning, on Nov. 5, Mr. Galloway saw a blue heron fly overhead near Gilbert.
“Reese’s camera at his house caught a bear going through his garbage on Oct. 28 in Virginia. Hopefully that bear is heading to bed soon!
“On Monday, Nov. 3, Aiden saw a pair of swans hanging out on Silver Lake in Virginia.
“Evelyn noticed a grouse run into the woods when she was on her way to school this morning.
“There were three wolves in Lillian’s yard last Saturday, Nov. 1. They were pretty interested in her chickens, but fortunately, the chickens were locked up safely.
“Other animal sightings include turkeys, a fox, and lots of deer. We’re probably seeing more deer due to the shorter daylight hours. Deer are most active at dawn and dusk and now we are too. This pattern of activity is called crepuscular. Wolves, moose, bobcats, coyotes, and raccoons are all crepuscular. This is a great time of year to see wildlife since we don’t have to stay up too late to see them!
“On the night of Nov. 5, many of us enjoyed a view of the supermoon. A supermoon is a full moon that occurs at its closest point in its elliptical orbit. Some of us were lucky enough to see the northern lights dancing overhead at around 8:15 on the same night.
“This has been a report from North Star Elementary in Virginia. Keep exploring the great outdoors!”
Cohasset Elementary School
North Shore Community School
“Hello from North Shore Community School on the north shore of Lake Superior. This is the phenology report for the week of Nov. 1, 2025. My name is Violet, and I am your phenologist for this week!
“On Wednesday night, Nov. 5, Ms. Urban was about to go to bed when she looked outside and saw the Northern Lights. They were so bright they were easily visible even though the full moon was out. On the morning of Thursday, Nov. 6, Jillian noticed a frozen puddle as she walked into school, which means the temperature was cold enough to freeze the water. Also on this day, several students noticed that water along the edge of Schmidt Creek was frozen.
“This week we noticed lots of plants that are still green- something that’s unusual this time of year. On Monday, Nov. 3,Ms. Urban noticed round-lobed hepatica that was still green. On Tuesday, Nov. 4, Ms. Rademacher’s class noticed more green plants like western sweet coltsfoot and naked bishop’s cap. Also on Tuesday, the preschoolers noticed the green fronds of spinulose wood fern, and the fertile fronds of a sensitive fern. It will release its spores next season. On Wednesday, Nov. 5, the preschoolers noticed the green leaves of Canadian bunchberry, and some had turned purple!
“On Monday, Nov. 3, Ms. Urban noticed lots of migrating raptors at school, including Bald Eagles, Rough-legged Hawks and Red-tailed Hawks. The wind was very strong, so the raptors were probably taking advantage of the good migration conditions. On Wednesday, Nov. 5, Ms. Pierson-Evans saw a gaggle of turkeys on Ryan Road on her way to school.
"On Tuesday, Nov. 4, Ms. Young’s class saw a small, dark brown rodent running through the leaves in the school forest.
"The preschoolers were exploring on Tuesday, Nov. 4, and found two lobster mushrooms. The mushrooms were not attached to the ground. Perhaps a little animal picked them to eat as a snack! The preschoolers also found a pill bug, which isn’t even an insect, it’s a crustacean- which means it’s closely related to lobsters and shrimp. On Wednesday, Nov. 5th Ms. Lampela’s class saw Orange Jelly Fungus, or Witches Butter in the school forest. It was bright orange and wasn’t dried up at all.
“This concludes the phenology report. Have a great week and be observant!”
Long Lake Conservation Center
This report is from Penelope, MacKenzie and the students from Pequot Lakes Middle School.
“During our trip to Long Lake Conservation Center on Nov. 5-6, the high temperature was a sunny 50 degrees and the low was 19.
“The super moon was very large and bright. The Ojibwe call the November full moon the ‘Beaver Moon’. Our group didn’t see any beavers, but Kinley, Walker and others saw a muskrat on the lake.
“On Wednesday, the warm midday sun resulted in some sightings unusual for November. We saw a garter snake sunning itself outside of the hibernaculum, an earthworm and autumn meadowhawk dragonfly, and there were multiple reports of wasps. With colder temperatures in the forecast, this might be the last sightings of these critters until spring.
“Other sightings included whitetail deer, a dead Blue Jay, and red and grey squirrels. In the bog, we found cranberries. Along the way, there was lots and lots and lots of scat. We found deer, bear and mouse scat.
“Bash said this morning’s sunrise was beautiful, and a few people who stayed up late reported seeing the Northern Lights.
“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 Mattia and Kylee reporting from Little Falls Middle School. This is our phenology report for the week of Nov. 9.
“We had a red admiral butterfly sighting on Nov. 4, we are doubtful it will make it south.
“Most fields have a Red-tailed Hawk perched on a fence or hay bale, searching for rodents.
“This week, we have had multiple sightings of puffballs, inky caps, turkey tail and artist fungi.
“For some reason, there is a noticeable increase in the number of Red-breasted Nuthatches we are seeing.
“We had another sighting of green and turquoise elfcup, which are the bodies of the blue green stain fungus.
“The dropping of most leaves from trees has revealed the large amount of buckthorn we have growing around here, as their leaves are still green.
“Small groups of geese and swans are typically flying around dawn and dusk.
“We still have some blue violets blooming, and we believe we have seen the last of our butter and eggs for the year.
“We have seen gray squirrels taking the fallen walnuts from the tree at our school.
“The crabapple tree outside our window at school is loaded with bright yellow fruit, and just as many can be found on the ground beneath it.
“There was a sighting of another black bear on Nov. 2, but we are guessing the colder weather this weekend might make this our last one for the season.
“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 Lily, Elizabeth and Emmy reporting on our observations from the week ending Nov. 7.
“This week, we observed a small muskrat that got stuck on our playground during recess. It ran off when we lined up to go inside.
“We also observed that our red and silver maple buds look much different from each other. The red maple has red buds in a cluster and the silver maple has smaller pointy buds.
“Our lilac tree has a birds nest in it but the birds used part of a plastic bag as nesting materials. A good reminder to Not Litter!
“In the forest, we saw that our cottonwood tree has lost all of its leaves and now we can see it has big green pointy buds that are shaped like teardrops.
“That is all from the Linwood School Forest, and remember, there is no place like Linwood!”
Prairie Creek Community School
Emory: “Hi, this is Emory-”
Ezri: “And this is Ezri-”
Emory: “And we’re from Prairie Creek Community School, way down south in Northfield Minnesota.”
Ezri: “It SNOWED! We got a dusting of snow on Nov. 9.”
Emory: “It was also the first really hard freeze and many of the softer leaves like locust and maple came down all at once.”
Ezri: “It’s also been getting a lot darker in the afternoon!”
Emory: “Hank’s mom saw the last dragonfly. It has to be the last, right?!”
Ezri: “Hank’s mom also got hit by a bunny that came bounding out of the brush.”
Emory: “We’ve all noticed that there are mice in our house.”
Ezri: “We’ve also seen a lot of Bald Eagles, including a few on nests and in pairs.”
Emory: “Grace noticed how much easier it is to see nests right now.”
Ezri: “Oscar shared that his chickens started to lay eggs.”
Emory: “Oscar also saw some Sandhill Cranes-”
Ezri: “And Natlie saw a possum.”
Emory: “We haven’t seen any herons or vultures this week.”
Ezri: “This has been Prairie Creek-”
Emory: “One more step along the phenology journey.”
Caledonia High School
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).
