The Nature of Phenology | WERU 89.9 FM Blue Hill, Maine Local News and Public Affairs Archives

Producers: Hazel Stark & Joe Horn Host: Hazel Stark Most folks across the ruffed grouse’s range know them by that name, though if you have spent any time talking about wildlife in Maine, you likely know them by their colloquial name: partridges. Whatever you call them, partridges are chunky ground birds about the size and shape of a small chicken, but draped in the mottled gray, brown, red, a...

Producers: Hazel Stark & Joe Horn Host: Hazel Stark Kinglets are decidedly tiny birds. At only three inches long from tip of beak to tip of tail, most of their bulk is made up of near weightless feathers. When placed on a scale, they weigh in at just four to eight grams—the weight of just two pennies. Photos, a full transcript, references, contact information, and more available at thenatureo...

Producers: Hazel Stark & Joe Horn Host: Hazel Stark While we may struggle to see a red fox year-round, their smell this time of year provides a big clue to their whereabouts. Photos, a full transcript, references, contact information, and more available at thenatureofphenology.wordpress.com. The post The Nature of Phenology 2/15/20: Red Foxes Breeding first appeared on WERU 89.9 FM Blue Hill,...

Producers: Hazel Stark & Joe Horn Host: Hazel Stark Light is used as the energy source for plants to put together carbon dioxide and water into simple and complex carbohydrates like sugars (food now), starches (food later), and cellulose (which serve as building materials). And the byproduct of all this labor is oxygen. Photos, a full transcript, references, contact information, and more avai...

Producers: Hazel Stark & Joe Horn Host: Hazel Stark Maine has only three true hibernators: groundhogs, little brown bats, and jumping meadow mice. While black bears do hunker down in order to conserve energy for the winter, they aren’t technically hibernators, but rather go into a similar process called torpor. Knowing that black bears do wake up occasionally during the winter makes it seem a...

Producers: Hazel Stark & Joe Horn Host: Hazel Stark When liquid water evaporates or solid ice sublimates, it transform into the gas we know as water vapor. In the case of snow formation, the water vapor becomes super chilled far below the freezing point of water, so when it comes into contact with dust, pollen, or smoke, that water vapor instantly forms a microscopic crystal of ice in a proce...

Producers: Hazel Stark & Joe Horn Host: Hazel Stark Bigger than a sparrow, smaller than a cardinal, and draped in buff yellows, browns and grays, cedar waxwings are most distinguishable by the size of their flocks to the unaided eye. Throughout the year, I tend to find cedar waxwing flocks numbering around a dozen or so individuals, though those flocks can contain 100 or more individuals this...

Producers: Hazel Stark & Joe Horn Host: Hazel Stark A January thaw occurs when the outside temperature increases somewhat suddenly compared to the usual temperatures in the surrounding weeks. Depending on how far north you live, this increase in temperature may not actually go above freezing and cause a thaw, but the occurrence holds onto the name “January thaw” nonetheless. Photos, a full tr...

Producers: Hazel Stark & Joe Horn Host: Hazel Stark These still and silent January nights are one of two times per year when you have a very good chance of hearing owls singing. In late summer, we hear young owls vocalizing to announce their new territory. But in this part of early winter, owls are vocalizing to attract mates. Photos, a full transcript, references, contact information, and mo...

Producers: Hazel Stark & Joe Horn Host: Hazel Stark During the warmer months, forests don vast canopies of green leafy glory. These leaves absorb sunlight and use that energy to convert carbon dioxide and water into simple sugars which they can use immediately or store for longer term as more complex carbohydrates such as fibers and starches—making wood. Photos, a full transcript, references,...

Producers: Hazel Stark & Joe Horn Host: Hazel Stark The urge that many of us have to bring evergreens indoors in late December is a tradition that not only pre-dates Christianity, but also has existed in many cultures around the world for centuries on the winter solstice. Polystichum acrostichoides, or Christmas fern as it is more commonly called, is an evergreen fern found from eastern Texas...

Producers: Hazel Stark & Joe Horn Host: Hazel Stark Like any mammal, mice need suitable shelter to provide protection from predators, nesting materials, and a spot to retreat out of the elements year-round. In the wilds this time of year a thick, insulating snowpack is important for the survival of mice. Photos, a full transcript, references, contact information, and more available at thenatu...

Producers: Hazel Stark & Joe Horn Host: Hazel Stark Night in the northern tier comes much earlier in the winter than in the summer. For an added bonus, during our colder months we also happen to have the best shot at getting crystal clear skies thanks to the lower humidity. This week, in fact, you can watch the Geminid meteor shower at a conveniently early time and revel in the abundance of “...

Producers: Hazel Stark & Joe Horn Host: Hazel Stark Why a group of American crows is called a “murder” is, perhaps, anyone’s guess, for this term is so old it is chronicled in fairytales and folklore. As such, there are many colorful rationales for this grim name that all seem to stem from the fact that crows are opportunistic scavengers, so wherever there is death, there is often a group of...

Producers: Hazel Stark & Joe Horn Host: Hazel Stark The fall phenology of wild turkeys, plus some turkey facts to wow your Thanksgiving guests. Photos, a full transcript, references, contact information, and more available at thenatureofphenology.wordpress.com. The post The Nature of Phenology 11/23/19: Wild Turkeys first appeared on WERU 89.9 FM Blue Hill, Maine Local News and Public Affairs...

Producers: Hazel Stark & Joe Horn Host: Hazel Stark If your home isn’t completely tight (whose is?), you probably have some ladybugs accumulating now. Like us, ladybugs seek a warm winter dwelling to help in their survival of the cold season. Photos, a full transcript, references, contact information, and more available at thenatureofphenology.wordpress.com. The post The Nature of Phenology 1...

Producers: Hazel Stark & Joe Horn Host: Hazel Stark In October, the bright red fruits of winterberry often go unnoticed amidst the stunning range of red, orange, yellow, and green painting every nook and cranny of the natural world. But come November, when the landscape turns nearly grayscale, that splash of lipstick red on the landscape is a most welcome sight. Photos, a full transcript, ref...

Producers: Hazel Stark & Joe Horn Host: Hazel Stark I watched a flitting dart of a small bird zooming one way, then I’d hear a brief scuffing against the clapboard of the building with its diminutive feet and wingtips, then darting back from where it came and disappearing. This happened over and over again as if mechanized. Photos, a full transcript, references, contact information, and more...

Producers: Hazel Stark & Joe Horn Host: Hazel Stark Ring-billed gulls flock together to feed in open spaces in the fall and spring in Maine on their way to more northern summer haunts and more southern winter haunts. And haunting they can certainly be if you’re a person who gets uneasy about seeing large flocks of birds in one place. Just ask Alfred Hitchcock what could happen. Photos, a full...

Producers: Hazel Stark & Joe Horn Host: Hazel Stark Despite their reputation for being a staple of the New England diet and landscape, apple trees are actually native to what is now Kazakhstan at about the same latitude as Bangor, Maine. Apples reveal a crisp slice of human history as rich as the flavor of apple pie. Photos, a full transcript, references, contact information, and more availab...

Producers: Hazel Stark & Joe Horn Host: Hazel Stark Maine is doubly famous when it comes to salmon. For one, Maine is the last stronghold in the country for wild sea-run Atlantic salmon. Their populations have been so reduced because of overfishing, pollution, and dams that they are listed as a federally endangered species and fishing for them is illegal. Landlocked Atlantic salmon are more o...

Producers: Hazel Stark & Joe Horn Host: Hazel Stark I drive by that copse of poplar trees every day and yet I have not stopped to absorb or photo-document their splendor. But to these wayward travelers from perhaps a city or suburb, our dead end road was as strange, quaint, and special as Tolkien’s Middle Earth. Sometimes it takes tourists to remind me of just how special our place is. Photos...

Producers: Hazel Stark & Joe Horn Host: Hazel Stark Sunchokes are also commonly known by the ridiculous name “Jerusalem artichokes,” for these are neither from Jerusalem, nor are they artichokes. Instead they are plants that are native to North America from Newfoundland to Saskatchewan and down to Georgia. Photos, a full transcript, references, contact information, and more available at thena...

Producers: Hazel Stark & Joe Horn Host: Hazel Stark The beginning of the school year is marked by flocking behavior that Canada geese embody so well. But why flock? Photos, a full transcript, references, contact information, and more available at thenatureofphenology.wordpress.com. The post The Nature of Phenology 9/21/19: Canada Geese Flocking first appeared on WERU 89.9 FM Blue Hill, Maine...

Producers: Hazel Stark & Joe Horn Host: Hazel Stark For roughly 200 years after the tomato was introduced to Europe, it was considered perhaps the least edible thing in European and American gardens thanks to a number of false accounts of their toxicity all seeming to stem from their unfortunate beginnings as table fare on the plates of some aristocratic foodies. Photos, a full transcript, re...