There's no better time to look for animal tracks than just after a fresh snowfall - enjoy this week's nine reports, which feature student trackers, a hibernation-hesitant bear, and twenty deer mice scattering from a new-fallen tree.
Great Expectations School in Grand Marais
“Hi, this is Dom and Natalia reporting from Great Expectations School in Grand Marais on Dec. 4.
“The weather has recently turned much cooler, we noticed that it has been 9 days since it has been above 30 degrees. Last night it snowed 4.6 inches at school, giving us a two-hour late start. This past weekend we also had a few snowflakes falling but nothing very measurable. The wind, however, was very strong. It blew our school's canoes across the street and deep into our neighbors yard. Some of our smaller lakes have a thin layer of ice on them but are not quite ready for ice fishing on them yet.
“This week, we are still seeing deer quite frequently. With the snow we are noticing a lot more tracks from deer, coyote, wolf, and moose in our yards. Snow Buntings can now be found along the side of the roads for most of our drive. We are also seeing Blue Jays and chickadees, but not hearing them with the recent snow. Everything outside has become very quiet.
“Last week, Ezme and her family saw a small bear. It was a surprising find because most of the local bears had already started their winter hibernation. In the corners of an outhouse, Miss Emma found a bunch of ladybugs huddled together in the corners of an outhouse. In the winter, ladybugs gather together in a warm secure place like under logs, under leaves or inside houses, and they enter into a hibernation-like state called ‘diapause’ where they slow down their metabolism.
“This has been Dom and Natalia reporting from Great Expectations School in Grand Marais.”
North Star Elementary School in Virginia
“This is Noah, Michael, Helen, Cora, Cody, Cooper, Kiera, Truman reporting from North Star Elementary in Virginia, Minnesota on Dec. 4, 2024.
“Connor observed that we haven’t seen any clear skies for at least a week. Snow flurries have been pretty constant in the air. Last night, Dec. 3, we got at least two inches of fresh snow. Today we have a lot of snow coming down. Maddy noticed that the snow is making it hard to see things that are far away.
“Bryn has heard the wind outside her house at night. It’s been really windy lately!
“Rees noticed that the sun keeps setting earlier and earlier. It is 17 days until the solstice, which is the day with the most darkness of the year.
“Kiera noticed that Deep Lake, where her aunt lives, completely froze over sometime around Thanksgiving, either Nov. 27 or 28.
“Gwendolyn noticed that Pleasant Lake near Eveleth had completely frozen over on Monday, Dec. 2.
“Noah noticed on Dec. 3 that Ely Lake in Eveleth had completely frozen over.
“Cole noted that the Embarrass River, which runs through his backyard, froze over for the first time this year on Dec. 3.
“This cold weather is great for making ice!
“John observed some fox tracks in the bog near his house. There were also some snowshoe hare tracks nearby. He didn’t see any signs of a struggle, so maybe the hare found a good hiding spot.
“This has been a report from North Star Elementary in Virginia. Keep exploring the great outdoors!”
Cherry School near Iron Junction
“Hi, this is Emma, Kaitlynn, Tyler, and Malachi reporting from Cherry School in Iron Junction, Minnesota on Friday, Dec. 6.
“We have been noticing it's getting really cold and the lakes are starting to freeze. It's been snowing a lot lately, and it's been getting really icy everywhere outside. The snow is sticking to the ground, it isn’t melting, and there have been a lot of high winds. We estimated that there has been 4 inches of snow. We used a stick to measure and estimate.
“This is Tyler. On Nov. 30, I saw a group of 7 deer near Cherry.
“Over the weekend, Xzavier saw a gray wolf, a squirrel, an albino rabbit, and a coyote in Buhl.
“On Dec. 4, Honey saw a few deer on her way to Hibbing.
“On Dec. 4, Annelise saw a grey wolf and some eagles on her way to basketball practice near Lavell Township.
“A couple days ago, John Latimer joined us for our walk in the school forest. We saw many kinds of footprints. We observed little footprints in a straight line in the snow. We think it was a fox because John Latimer told us that fox prints go in a straight line. We also saw a little den with little footprints coming from a tree. We think it was a squirrel because a squirrel was probably climbing the tree.
“We saw another set of footprints that looked like the animal was dragging its feet. We think it was a deer because John Latimer explained that deer usually drag their feet in the snow.
“This concludes our phenology report. This has been Emma, Kaitlynn, Tyler, and Malachi reporting from Cherry School. Nature Rules!”
Cohasset Elementary School
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 week of Nov. 30, 2024. My name is Tobias, and I am your phenologist for this week!
"On Monday, Dec. 2, we came back to school and played in 2-3 inches of new snow on the playground. We have all started wearing all our snow gear including snow pants and will continue to wear them until spring. Ms. Rolfe’s class went outside on Dec. 4, and there was about another 2 inches of fresh snow. The wind was blowing really hard making all the snow on the playground swirl around. It was like being in a snow globe! Also on Dec. 4, Mrs. Rolfe’s class went out on the nature trail for phenology and the wind, at 27 mph, sounded like a freight train!
"On Dec. 6, Ms. Rolfe’s class went outside for phenology. We stopped at Chickadee Landing to watch the birds and spotted two Red-breasted Nuthatches at the birdfeeder along with many chickadees enjoying the black oil sunflower seeds.
“While walking out by the creek on Dec. 4, Mrs. Rolfe’s class saw some animal tracks on the frozen creek. When we came back inside, we looked up what type of animal had made the tracks and concluded that they could have been from a lynx or a bobcat. After the snowfall, Mr. Dover’s class noticed tracks from snowshoe hares, some sort of small mammal like a mouse or shrew, a fox and a grouse.
"In the past week we have lost another 9 minutes of daylight. Winter solstice is Dec. 21. Winter solstice is the shortest day of the year, but then the next day we can all start to enjoy the days getting longer! On Dec. 5, some previous NSCS students were at the school working on getting the skating rinks ready for the season. This was the third flooding they have done this winter. It is estimated that they will need to flood the rinks five more times for them to be ready for people to go skating and play hockey on them.
“We were learning this week in EE with Ms. Urban about how to identify how much growth a tree has had by observing a small part of one of its branches. We studied lateral buds, alternate buds, terminal buds, leaf scars and terminal bud scale scars. To see how much growth that particular branch has had over the season, measure the distance from the terminal bud scale scar to the tip of the terminal bud!
“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 Ellie, Addie and the students from Andover Elementary School, reporting from Long Lake for Dec. 2-4.
“Winter arrived with a high temperature of 22 and low of 5. We experienced snow, freezing rain and gusty winds up to 20 miles per hour.
“During our phenology hike, it was easy to see tracks in the fresh snow. We saw squirrel, mouse, rabbit, deer and fox tracks. We found false turkey tail mushrooms and lichen of many colors, including yellow and green.
“Our group found plenty of winterberry bushes filled with red berries and learned what marcescence is when we noticed that some of the deciduous trees still had dead leaves on them. We saw the leaves still on oak and ironwood trees.
“During another hike, we flushed a Ruffed Grouse. We noticed many woodpecker holes in trees. In one tree there were four holes in a row, three were old and the one at the top was new. We measured the thickness of the ice on Monday afternoon at about 3 inches. By Tuesday evening, it was already five inches thick. That’s pretty thick considering that ice went in on Wednesday, Nov. 28. It’s still borderline whether it’s safe to walk to the middle of the lake. We opted for caution and stayed close to shore.
“On the frozen lake we saw bubbles under the ice and mouse tracks. One of the highlights of the trip was seeing a flying squirrel eating bird seed. We learned that flying squirrels are common, but not often seen, especially in the middle of the day. On our phenology hike, we noticed lots of goldenrod galls. We got to cut open a few to find the little grub living in there. Dallas, Mylo and Luke ate the grub. Gross! They said it is not at all like gum. Levi and Kaler tried to eat one, but they dropped it. Womp. Womp. We only ate a few grubs and left the rest for the birds who rely on them for protein.
“One other interesting find was a dead mouse in a tree. It’s possible that it was killed by a shrike, a bird that kills and impales its prey on a branch to eat when it gets hungry.
“A little cold, snow and wind was not enough to stop us from exploring and we want to remind everyone to unplug, get outside and LIVE CONNECTED!”
This report is brought to you by Gemma, Ren, Josie and the students from Andover Elementary School - Black group, reporting from Long Lake for Dec. 4-6.
"We had mostly beautiful winter weather with a high temperature of 29 degrees and a low of 4.
"On Wednesday, high winds of more than 20 miles per hour made it feel downright chilly. Clear skies on Thursday night allowed us to look at constellations and see Jupiter and Venus.
"Long Lake is frozen solid and the ice is thick enough to support a herd of seven deer that were spotted crossing the middle of the lake.
"In the bog, the Black-capped Chickadees were eating the seeds from the tamarack trees. These seeds are a winter-long food source for chickadees.
"In the woods, we found grouse tracks and noticed that the dead leaves have not fallen off of the ironwood trees.
"Our group noticed lots of interesting mice and vole trails forming little forest highways between trees. Many of these trails were subnivean, which we learned means beneath the snow. Some of the subnivean tunnels had collapsed. There’s good reason for these rodents to stay out of sight. Bald eagles were spotted soaring overhead, and owls and other predators are always on the prowl.
"It was a great week in nature, we want to remind everyone to unplug, get outside and LIVE CONNECTED!"
Little Falls Middle School
“This is Nash and Bennett reporting from Mr Kaddatz’s class in Little Falls Middle School. This is our phenology report for the week of Dec. 8.
“There is at least 4 inches of ice on local lakes, and the Mississippi River has completely frozen across in spots.
“Two different people reported seeing Bald Eagles hanging around on nests. We were wondering if they use their nest throughout the year ?
“We have noticed an increase in the number of raccoons and deer that we are seeing by roadways.
“There are still robins hanging out and feeding on the fruit outside our classroom windows.
“There were 5 female and 3 male cardinals together at a bird feeder. We do not know if it was still a family unit, or if they group together in the winter?
“A classmate did see a black spider running across the snow. She did not get a close enough look at it to identify it, but we do know there are several species that stay active through the winter.
“The fruit of bittersweet nightshade is bright red and persistent. Although it is poisonous to many animals, apparently the birds do enjoy it in the winter.
“We did see a short-tailed shrew running across the new snow, before disappearing into some leaf litter.
“Cottontail rabbits seem to be everywhere, especially right around sundown.
“The new snow last week made for perfect conditions to look at animal tracks in the snow.
“A classmate was able to observe a pair of otters playing around on the river.
“A family cut down an old tree and close to 20 deer mice ran out from inside.
“The red oaks still have almost all of their leaves.
“That is our report for this week, until next week, keep exploring, keep discovering, and keep connecting with the great outdoors.”
Prairie Creek Community School in Northfield
We heard from our friends in Michelle Martin’s class at Prairie Creek Community School in Northfield, Minnesota. They wanted to share a poem they are reading for class.
"Whenever you see a tree" by Padma Vankatraman:
Think
how many long years
this tree waited as a seed
for an animal or bird or wind or rain
to maybe carry it to maybe the right spot
where again it waited months for seasons to change
until time and temperature were fine enough to coax it
to swell and burst its hard shell so it could send slender roots
to clutch at grains of soil and let tender shoots reach toward the sun
Think how many decades or centuries it thickened and climbed and grew
taller and deeper never knowing if it would find enough water or light
or when conditions would be right so it could keep on spreading leaves
adding blossoms and dancing
Next time
you see
a tree
think
how
much
hope
it holds
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, <b>subscribe</b> to our Season Watch Newsletter 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).
