Site Discussions

Thanks to bird feeders (and people who feed birds) Coopers Hawks are hanging around a lot more in the winter.  Rather than the risky migration south with the songbirds they hang out near our feeders for a black oil seed fueled winter holiday.  Perhaps because of this safer and well fed bonanza their numbers are rising and they are nesting closer to humans in more suburban locations.

Nice writeup, thanks. I’m a big fan of forestry mimicking natural processes. With that in mind, as you said forest stands are still a practical way to understand forests, essentially giving us management units to monitor and work with. How do you think the concept of forest stands needs to change to facilitate more nature-based and nature-like forestry?

I can see how, in the context of ecological forestry, stands would likely be defined in smaller areas and delimited based on more complex variables. For example, rather than basing stands on *mostly-uniform* species or age-class, stands would need to be based on similar *distributions* of species, age-class, or other variables. This is already how I’ve seen forest management planning done in some areas that aim for mixed-age stands using natural regeneration.

Thank you for this article.
I have had the same experience and professed my sadness and immediate dislike of the predator to other bird-loving friends who are ,I guess,more scientific than me. I was told it is the way of nature…which is true…and I shouldn’t hate the hawk…but I still did.
We provided food to flocks of birds that helped them survive and one was not so lucky.
I do understand…would prefer not to witness it.

Thank you. We have had our hawk visitors. I so enjoy these postings as I work to sharpen my eye!

Does anyone know why some Skunk Cabbage spathes are very dark (purplish-black?), while others can be very light greenish-yellow…?

I just saw the Winter Fireflies last week (March 14-15). They were at the base of maple sap flow. I was very intrigued and coincidentally just came across your interesting article. I enjoy Adelaide Tyrol’s illustrations as well.

Thank you, Tony Faria

I was fortunate to see a mink on our barn camera.  It was coming from behind the barn and heading up the driveway towards the woods.  Because it hesitated for a moment before going out into plain sight, I was able to see what it was.  For 33 years, I never saw one before.

Some years ago my wife and I took the ferry from North Sydney, Nova Scotia to Port au Basque, Newfoundland.  Driving off the ferry there were prominent signs warning visitors to be careful of Moose on the roads.  In particular, it warned that moose’s eyes don’t reflect, which in addition to their dark brown coloring, makes them very hard to see at night.

Thanks for your informative article which brought our Newfoundland trip to mind.

Great Information, but this species goes through 3 molts, which means they go through 5 instars. Instars are the periods between molts.

Seems a late start, tapped 2-10 and 2-13 and didn’t see much sap until this past week beginning March 11. First boil tomorrow. 3 weeks later than last year…  so we’ve spent weekends making small but significant improvements in sugarhouse: marketing signs, carpentry, cleaning, fiddling around to bide our time.  Like Tom Petty sang “the waiting is the hardest part.”

I am concerned that when the LED Flashlights aim at an animal in the dark of night…does it injure their vision…their eyes.  I see warninging on these modern flashlights NOT to look directly into them…and looking at oncoming headlights are blinding…I have to look away and so drive less and less at night fearing damage to my eyes.  Are there flashlights that are safe for the animals whose eyes we shine them into…that we can purchase somewhere?  I like to walk at night myself spotlighting different places…like a stage set…watching spiders weave a web, and seeing what animals are out there…turning off the flashlight…and just looking at the stars and moon and listening to night sounds.  Thank you for your article.

Northwestern Pennsylvania has had one heck of a week for making syrup!  Yesterday was a little too warm for comfort if you are a sugar maker - mid 60’s with the unsettling rumbling of thunder.  But, the mercury is falling again and with luck this sweet (and exhausting) season will continue into the next week and beyond!

Great article! Answered my question as to what the turkeys were eating in the winter. I saw 50 turkeys in February gather for days around a fallen uprooted tree out in the woods, pecking and eating something for days around the tree….. What were they eating around the uprooted fallen tree? Fern roots that came out of the ground when the tree fell…..Very interesting!.

As a traditional Native American basketmaker I am so distressed by the EAB.  There is really nothing like the Ash for basket making and Kimmerer is correct that the relationship between a basket maker and the ash is spiritual and material.  Nothing will fill the hole that losing the Ash will leave in our souls.

Perfect! Great description of many millennium of continent formation. Always look forward to Dave’s articles.

Very interesting. I’ve been waiting to tap till just as the flow starts. I’m going to tap now after reading the above article. -25C and 40 inches of snow here yet.

Unfortunately too many people think that deer won’t make it through the winter without people feeding them—were that true there wouldn’t have been any deer here when European settlers arrived.

To think that logging destroys deer habitat (except in the case of winter deer yards) is the height of naivete—deer are an early successional species that depend on forest disturbances.

Sandie - I know you’re asking for serious advice…but what a fun post. Have you considered a Havahart trap? You can find information on their website, and it seems to me that simply releasing the animal outside might work? Of course, you’d want to make sure that you only set the trap up at a time when you could frequently check on it, especially as weasels starve quickly. If there’s a nearby stone wall with natural crevices, that would be a good place to release it.

I hear complaints all the time about large wolf packs, well large deer herds mean wolves keep producing offspring, natural thinning of deer herds keeps the entire system in natural order.

Neat story.  How old this land under our feet is!