A Look at the Season's Main Events
By Virginia Barlow
November
November’s shorter and cooler days decrease transpiration and the water needs of trees, making it an excellent time to transplant / Most of the bird world has quieted down, though sometimes purple finch and evening grosbeak numbers rise, and these flocking species can be quite noisy / Snow buntings are visiting meadows on their way to the coast / Common snipe are hardy birds and will often stay in meadows until hard freezes force them to fly south
Ground cedars are producing clouds of pollen / Monarch butterflies are settling into oyamel fir trees in Mexico / Deer are mating. The gestation period for whitetails is from 200 to 210 days / Reports of warblers at this point are likely to be rare. Sparrows are still seen regularly / Last of the ruby crowned kinglets move through northern New England on their way from breeding grounds in the north to spend the winter in Connecticut and points south
Nov. 17: Leonid meteor shower peaks / Porcupines eat bark after the leaves have fallen: aspen, basswood, and mountain maple are favorites / Meadows and fields are withered and brown – or perhaps covered with snow / Red-breasted nuthatches favor softwoods; white-breasted nuthatches are more often in hardwoods. Both species come to birdfeeders / The winter diet of the snowshoe hare features the twigs and buds of sugar maple, aspen, hemlock, and beaked hazelnut
Speckled alder is the only common, native shrub that has both male and female catkins on its winter twigs / Some northern saw whet owls migrate. After the first snowfall, those that stay may shift from hunting red backed voles in the woods to hunting meadow voles in open fields / Crabapple trees are sometimes loaded with waxwings. Both Bohemian and cedar waxwing adults can subsist entirely on fruit, thanks to a short intestine and a large liver
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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.
