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Phenology Talkbacks: Is a one-legged moose teetering around Iron Junction?

Two moose forage in a field near Middle River, Minnesota on July 7, 2021.
Contributed
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iNaturalist user jake_knutsen
Two moose forage in a field near Middle River, Minnesota on July 7, 2021.

KAXE Staff Phenologist John Latimer remarks on seasonal observations from listeners and kids across the state, inspiring us to notice, understand and connect with nature.

My favorite quote of the week: "Today during our walk in the school forest, we noticed all kinds of different animal tracks. We even thought we saw a moose track, but we are not sure because there was only one. Usually, moose have four feet!"

Enjoy this week's six reports!

Oak Grove Elementary School in Bloomington

Oak Grove Elementary School phenology report: Jan. 14, 2025

Student phenologists pose at Oak Grove Elementary School during the week of Jan. 7, 2024.
Contributed
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Brian Cline
Student phenologists pose at Oak Grove Elementary School during the week of Jan. 7, 2024.

"Hi, this is Claire, Nick and Emily reporting from Oak Grove Elementary in Bloomington, Minnesota.

“This week’s weather has been freezing cold and mostly cloudy.

“With our plant observations, we noticed our tamarack had been chewed down by an animal, and we believe it was a deer. Our Oak tree continues to hold a small amount of leaves in the bottom inner part of the tree.

“We have a red fox on our school grounds. We know this because yesterday, my dad saw a red fox chasing and eating a squirrel right at dismissal time.

“We have a lot of squirrels and rabbits in our forest, as evidenced by all the rabbit scat we are seeing, and we know foxes eat squirrels and rabbits.

“We are pretty sure there is a fox den by an old shed at the bottom of our forest. We are going to explore that more in the future. We are wondering: Would a fox would ever go after a deer?

“That’s all for today, stay tuned for the next OGE Phenology Club nature episode! Keep looking for foxes! Bye!”

Little Falls Middle School

Little Falls Middle School phenology report: Jan. 14, 2025

Phenology topics for Little Falls Middle School for the week preceding Jan. 14, 2025. Chalkboard illustrations show a Goldeneye duck, Minnesota pines, a Black-capped Chickadee, a Cecropia moth cocoon, and bark beetle trails.
Contributed
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Chad Kaddatz
Phenology topics for Little Falls Middle School for the week preceding Jan. 14, 2025.

“This is Ashley and Peyton reporting from Mr. Kaddatz’s class in Little Falls Middle School. This is our phenology report for the week of Jan. 12.

“We finally received some snow this weekend, so it actually looks like winter outside.

“The ice on the Platte River is completely clear. It is like looking through glass.

“Downy Woodpeckers, Blue Jays, and [Northern] Cardinals are frequent visitors to bird feeders.

“Although most birds seem to feed in shifts at the feeders, the [Black-capped] Chickadees are almost non-stop visitors from 8:00 a.m. until 4:00 p.m.

“There was a pair of Bald Eagles feeding on a deer carcass on the side of the road.

“[Trumpeter] Swans are a common sight in small numbers flying most afternoons.

“The cones of the Norway spruce are large and very easy to spot.

“There are goldeneyes from the tundra that are staying on the Mississippi river in the small, open sections.

“A variety of different bark beetle trails are easy to spot on any old trees that have lost sections of bark.

“Two ravens were spotted east of town. Although not rare, it is a unique sighting for around here.

“A classmate found that a squirrel was using a pair of ice skates in her garage for a food cache.

“Another classmate found a group of mice that had made a home  in a pair of winter boots.

“There was a crab spider found inside a house.

“Wild turkeys and deer are typically seen in larger numbers than normal in the past week.

“That is our report for this week. Until next week, keep exploring, keep discovering, and keep connecting with the great outdoors.”

Long Lake Conservation Center near Palisade

This report is brought to you by Dylan, Ashlyn and the students from Bertha-Hewitt.

Long Lake Conservation Center phenology report: Jan. 14, 2025

“Hi, this is Dylan and Ashlyn from Bertha-Hewitt School in Bertha, Minnesota with the phenology report from Long Lake Conservation Center.

“During our trip from Jan. 9-10, the low temperature was 15 degrees and the high was 28 degrees.

“Guess what happened while we were at Long Lake? IT SNOWED! We got to enjoy a beautiful, gentle snowfall while we were out on the lake playing games and exploring. We ended up getting about an inch on the afternoon of Jan. 9. The snow mostly stopped by dinner, so there was not quite enough snow for snowshoeing.

“Out on the ice, we all got to hear it singing, with low deep rumbles sounding out across the lake. Sometimes it even came close enough to feel it underfoot. If we brushed away the snow, the ice was clear and dark underneath. We were competing to see who could find the biggest air bubble under the ice and were admiring the beauty of the cracks running across the lake.

“On our hikes around campus, we noticed that the lichen really stood out on the trees, so we stopped for a closer look. We spotted a few tracks frozen into the icy patches and were trying to figure out if they were large dog tracks or wolf.

“There was also a small tree that was splintered by the trail in a very strange way, and we could not figure out what did it. Potential culprits are: Woodpecker, deer, or people with a machine.

“And finally, from the dining hall, we watched the squirrels absolutely ATTACKING the bird feeders and digging in their winter caches trying to get more food.

“We had a great time exploring nature, and we want to remind everyone to unplug, get outside and LIVE CONNECTED!”

North Shore Community School near Duluth

North Shore Community School phenology report: Jan. 14, 2025

“Hello from North Shore Community School on the North Shore of Lake Superior. This is the phenology report for the week of Jan. 4, 2025. My name is Merrik , and I am your phenologist for this week!

“On Saturday, Jan. 4, the Earth reached perihelion, the closest point to the sun in its annual, slightly elliptical orbit. We also had 8 hours and 54 minutes of daylight. The daylight length will now be increasing!

“On Monday, Jan. 6, the snow total for the month was 0.2 inches as reported by the local news. At this time last year, there was 9.3 inches of snow. The average for this time of year is 16.8 inches. Lake Superior has very little ice coverage- only some ice along small areas of shoreline. The ice coverage is also well below the average normal for this time of year.

“On Tuesday morning, Jan. 7, Ms. Jackson’s class was outside journaling and they could see their breath in the air. It was 10 degrees. There was very little snow on our school nature trail. It was mostly ice. The creek remains frozen with thick layers of ice- too thick to break.

“On Saturday, Jan. 4, Ms. Urban saw a Northern Shrike, White-winged Scoter, and Trumpeter Swan in the Canal Park and Park Point areas. She also saw Canada Geese, American Black Ducks and a bunch of Common Goldeneyes. On Monday, Jan. 6, Ms. Nikki saw a Great Grey Owl right as she was leaving school.

“On Tuesday, Jan. 7, Ms. Rademacher’s class and Ms. Courtney’s class saw a Great Grey Owl outside the school by the playground, perched on a tree. The third graders watched as the owl flew from tree to fence hunting and even found where the owl had grabbed its prey, because there was a little blood left in the spot!

“On Wednesday, Jan. 8, Ms. Rademacher’s class saw a Pileated Woodpecker at their classroom suet feeder.

“On Tuesday, Jan. 7, Ms. Young’s class found a kill site with fur and blood behind the ice rink. The fur was brown, so they thought it was a cottontail rabbit. The icy snow made it hard to look for tracks, so they aren’t sure what the predator was.

“On Thursday, Jan. 9, Ms. Urban saw more birch trees had released their seeds along the ground in the school forest.

“On Thursday, Jan. 9, the sunrise had all of bus 6 “oohing” and “ahhing” because it had painted the whole sky with pink and orange.

“This concludes the phenology report. Have a great week, and be observant!”

Cherry School near Iron Junction

Cherry School phenology report: Jan. 14, 2025

“Hi, this is Sylas, Scarlett, Ellie, and Keegin reporting from Cherry School in Iron Junction, Minnesota on Jan. 10, 2025.

“We have been noticing that the air is colder. At night you can see the stars better. The snow is crunchy and it sounds like Styrofoam when you walk on it.

“On Jan. 4, Mia saw a deer while her mom was driving. Also on Jan. 4, Ellie saw a bunch of rabbit tracks in her backyard while she was sledding. On Jan. 6, Ms. Carrie noticed the sky was still a little light at 5:08 PM. On Jan. 3, Sailie saw a squirrel come to her apple tree to eat. It’s been getting larger and it comes every day! On Jan. 5, Kalven saw two timberwolves. They were just standing in the field at his house next to the cattle.

“Today during our walk in the school forest, we noticed all kinds of different animal tracks. We even thought we saw a moose track, but we are not sure because there was only one. Usually, moose have four feet!

“We saw tiny tracks on the basketball court coming from the field and forest going to a small hole in the wall. It might be a little rodent like a mouse or vole. And we also saw many deer tracks. There were a lot of deer tracks going over each other.

“This concludes our phenology report. This has been Sylas, Scarlett, Ellie, and Keegin reporting from Cherry School. Nature Rules!”

North Star Elementary School in Virginia

North Star Elementary School phenology report: Jan. 14, 2025

“This is Dominic, Gwen, Connor, Lin, Maddy, and Autumn reporting from North Star Elementary in Virginia on Jan. 9, 2025.

“This is Dominic. On Dec. 29, when I was winter camping in Britt, I heard coyotes yipping. I looked up the sound I heard, and I think the coyotes were communicating that they were startled by my tent being in the middle of their path. I opened my tent and saw at least two of them in the woods, running off.

“Hi, this is Gwendolyn. When we went ice fishing a week ago with my cousins, the ice was only a foot deep, but when we went again last weekend, it was a foot and a half deep! The temperature has been really cold, so that makes the ice thicker! Also I have noticed that there is less snow on the snow hill at our school. I wonder if we will get more snow soon.

“This is Connor. I was walking in the Mountain Iron School Forest and I stopped at the ‘big puddle,’ also known as a pond. I was planning to chop the ice into the water, but I got stopped because there was no water! I think it froze all the way to the bottom.

“This is Lin. I was on the way to Duluth, and I saw a Canada Goose on the side of the road. I wonder if it was injured or if it was going to stay all winter.

“This is Maddy. I noticed that we had some warm days over the break that melted our snow and turned it all to ice. Now, everything is really slippery.

“Hello, this is Autumn. Since the snow turned to ice, we can’t measure the snow depth. Hopefully we get some new snow soon on top of all that ice!

“This has been a report from North Star Elementary in Virginia. Keep exploring the great outdoors!”


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 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).

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Charlie Mitchell (she/they) joined KAXE in February of 2022. Charlie creates the Season Watch Newsletter, produces the Phenology Talkbacks show, coordinates the Phenology in the Classroom program, and writes nature-related stories for KAXE's website. Essentailly, Charlie is John Latimer's faithful sidekick and makes sure all of KAXE's nature/phenology programs find a second life online and in podcast form.<br/><br/><br/>With a background in ecology and evolutionary biology, Charlie enjoys learning a little bit about everything, whether it's plants, mushrooms, or the star-nosed mole. (Fun fact: Moles store fat in their tails, so they don't outgrow their tunnels every time conditions are good.)