A Look at the Season's Main Events
By Virginia Barlow
January
Jan. 3: the Quadrantid meteor shower usually has a sharp peak, lasting only about an hour / Time to appreciate frost – on windows, trees, rocks, or any other surface – as it comes up with an endless number of beautiful patterns / Meadow voles are traveling and breeding in tunnels beneath the snow / Some mourning doves take a short trip south, but many stick it out / During cold spells, loud booming can be heard when lake ice contracts and cracks
Jan. 7-10, 1998: “The Great Ice Storm” / Goldfinches have always been erratic migrants. Now birdfeeders may be allowing them to winter farther north than in the past / During bad weather, mink will stay in their dens, usually near water – under tree roots in old muskrat or beaver bank burrows / Beneath the ice, some aquatic plants are photosynthesizing, even at low temperatures and light levels. This produces much-needed oxygen for fish and other organisms
Jan. 20: St Agnes’ Eve, when, according to tradition, midwinter’s bitter cold gives way to warmer late winter weather / Jan. 22: average start of the January thaw / Hairy woodpeckers begin territorial activities; downy woodpeckers will begin a bit later / Chickadees in the cattails are likely to be feeding on cattail moth larvae, not the infinitesimally small cattail seeds / Ivory-colored poison ivy seeds are still on the vine, a nutritious food for many birds
Bee balm flower heads, on square stems and composed of many florets, stay intact through winter weather / Pond and lake muskrats have crawled into burrows in banks. Muskrats in marshy areas are holed up in houses built of cattail stalks, other green plants, and sticks / Bear cubs are born. Each of the two or three babies weighs in at 0.4 to 0.7 pounds / The big, sticky buds of balsam poplar have a wonderful smell, which is intensified if you crush them
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These listing are from observations and reports in our home territory at about 1,000 feet in elevation in central Vermont and are approximate. Events may occur earlier or later, depending on you latitude, elevation - and the weather.
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© 2006 by the author; this article may not be copied or reproduced without the author's consent.
