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 How do those perfect feathery fronds of frost form and why? Photos, a full transcript, references, contact information, and more available at thenatureofphenology.wordpress.com About the host/writers: Joe Horn lives in Gouldsboro, is Co-Founder of Maine Outdoor School, L3C, and is a Registered Maine Guide and Carpenter. He is passionate abou...

Producers: Hazel Stark & Joe Horn Host: Hazel Stark Freezing can cause even something as simple and uninspired as a puddle in the middle of a gray forest to be transformed into an ethereal and ephemeral work of art. But how? Photos, a full transcript, references, contact information, and more available at thenatureofphenology.wordpress.com About the host/writers: Joe Horn lives in Gouldsboro,...

Producers: Hazel Stark & Joe Horn Host: Hazel Stark Snow buntings spend the summer in their high arctic tundra breeding grounds. Come November and December, they find their way south to most of the mid-tier of the United States where they pass our relatively mild winters on grassy or weedy fields adjacent to inland lakes and salt water. Photos, a full transcript, references, contact informati...

Producers: Hazel Stark & Joe Horn Host: Hazel Stark This edition written by Zabet NeuCollins While perhaps hanging wreathes has lost some of its symbolism, they sure make our front doors look pretty and inviting. However, wreathes that contain invasive species can harm your local ecosystem. Photos, a full transcript, references, contact information, and more available at thenatureofphenology....

Producers: Hazel Stark & Joe Horn Host: Hazel Stark This time of year I look to the muddy, winding estuaries of our area for clues about when the tomcod are running around the solstice: common merganser ducks. Photos, a full transcript, references, contact information, and more available at thenatureofphenology.wordpress.com About the host/writers: Joe Horn lives in Gouldsboro, is Co-Founder...

Producers: Hazel Stark & Joe Horn Host: Hazel Stark An evergreen fern to look for, even once there’s some snow on the ground. Photos, a full transcript, references, contact information, and more available at thenatureofphenology.wordpress.com About the host/writers: Joe Horn lives in Gouldsboro, is Co-Founder of Maine Outdoor School, L3C, and is a Registered Maine Guide and Carpenter. He is p...

Producers: Hazel Stark & Joe Horn Host: Hazel Stark Finding and identifying this mushroom is relatively simple if you live in a place with ample birches, and that in itself can be satisfying, but the history and uses of this mushroom make it an even more rewarding forest friend to get to know. Photos, a full transcript, references, contact information, and more available at thenatureofphenolo...

Producers: Hazel Stark & Joe Horn Host: Hazel Stark While many of you may find the name “Bruce spanworm” to be new, I’m sure most of you are familiar with at least their larvae. When very small in the early spring, they are bright green with light stripes down their flanks and everyone refers to these little caterpillars as “inchworms.” Photos, a full transcript, references, contact informati...

Producers: Hazel Stark & Joe Horn Host: Hazel Stark The exciting and obvious seasonal changes of late summer and early fall appear at first glance to be at a standstill. No more obvious flocks of birds moving south, lingering wildflowers or pollinators, sunshine that warms bare skin. But there are always signs of the continuous cycle of nature out there. Photos, a full transcript, references,...

Producers: Hazel Stark & Joe Horn Host: Hazel Stark One fruit that is still holding on and is ripe for the picking by our wild neighbors is that of the hawthorn. Photos, a full transcript, references, contact information, and more available at thenatureofphenology.wordpress.com About the host/writers: Joe Horn lives in Gouldsboro, is Co-Founder of Maine Outdoor School, L3C, and is a Registere...

Producers: Hazel Stark & Joe Horn Host: Hazel Stark Oaks and beech trees both hang onto their leaves a bit longer than our other deciduous trees, like maples, so the top layer of leaf litter where oaks grow is likely to be predominantly oak leaves. In these places, there’s a special little prize you can find on the freshly fallen oak leaves. Oak apple galls are spherical growths attached to t...

Producers: Hazel Stark & Joe Horn Host: Hazel Stark Witches’ brooms can form on a large variety of different trees, from lilacs and willows to spruces and firs. They are characterized by an abnormally dense growth of branches that are much shorter and thinner than the branches of the rest of the tree, looking very much like a bundle of twigs attached to a handle. Photos, a full transcript, re...

Producers: Hazel Stark & Joe Horn Host: Hazel Stark In forest ecosystems, leaves falling and accumulating on the ground is an important component in the forests’ nutrient cycle. The best gardening techniques are the ones that mimic nature. Photos, a full transcript, references, contact information, and more available at thenatureofphenology.wordpress.com About the host/writers: Joe Horn lives...

Producers: Hazel Stark & Joe Horn Host: Hazel Stark There is an obscure Viburnum that is ripe right about now across our area in moist edges and bottomlands whose flavor and texture is completely unique among our wild foods: nannyberry. Photos, a full transcript, references, contact information, and more available at thenatureofphenology.wordpress.com About the host/writers: Joe Horn lives in...

Producers: Hazel Stark & Joe Horn Host: Hazel Stark Now’s the time to revel in the last of the chirping crickets for the season—unless of course they’re under your bed. Photos, a full transcript, references, contact information, and more available at thenatureofphenology.wordpress.com About the host/writers: Joe Horn lives in Gouldsboro, is Co-Founder of Maine Outdoor School, L3C, and is a Re...

Producers: Hazel Stark & Joe Horn Host: Hazel Stark Maine bats are preparing for winter and that means many of our species are heading for a sheltered spot to hibernate. Photos, a full transcript, references, contact information, and more available at thenatureofphenology.wordpress.com About the host/writers: Joe Horn lives in Gouldsboro, is Co-Founder of Maine Outdoor School, L3C, and is a R...

Producers: Hazel Stark & Joe Horn Host: Hazel Stark With the build of an especially skinny wasp but with an intimidatingly long abdomen (or is it a stinger?), adult pelecinid wasps are easiest to find this time of year. Photos, a full transcript, references, contact information, and more available at thenatureofphenology.wordpress.com About the host/writers: Joe Horn lives in Gouldsboro, is C...

Producers: Hazel Stark & Joe Horn Host: Hazel Stark “Guttation” is the name for those perfect round droplets of liquid you can find on the surface of some mushrooms, and while you might quickly assume it’s just dew, it’s actually liquid exuded from within the mushroom. Photos, a full transcript, references, contact information, and more available at thenatureofphenology.wordpress.com About th...

Producers: Hazel Stark & Joe Horn Host: Hazel Stark It is this time of year when you can seek out a wild milkweed patch and keep an eye on it if you want to collect some seeds to plant your own native butterfly garden next spring. Photos, a full transcript, references, contact information, and more available at thenatureofphenology.wordpress.com About the host/writers: Joe Horn lives in Gould...

Producers: Hazel Stark & Joe Horn Host: Hazel Stark The beautiful patterning on a milk snake makes some people confuse them for timber rattlers or copperheads, but they are a much more mellow species that may begin following small mammals indoors soon. Photos, a full transcript, references, contact information, and more available at thenatureofphenology.wordpress.com About the host/writers: J...

Producers: Hazel Stark & Joe Horn Host: Hazel Stark Red-bellied snakes most often breed in the spring or early summer, though will evidently occasionally breed in the late fall. Somewhat uniquely among reptiles, the females give birth to litters of 1-21 live young between late July and early September. Photos, a full transcript, references, contact information, and more available at thenature...

Producers: Hazel Stark & Joe Horn Host: Hazel Stark As the purple pickerelweed flowers fade along pond and river edges, you can seek spikes of scarlet red cardinal flowers in the same areas and the white, three-petaled flowers of arrowhead. Photos, a full transcript, references, contact information, and more available at thenatureofphenology.wordpress.com About the host/writers: Joe Horn live...

Producers: Hazel Stark & Joe Horn Host: Hazel Stark This herbaceous wildflower can grow in clumps up to about three feet tall. Its most distinguishing characteristic is their white, papery flowers that are relatively small compared to the height of the plant. Photos, a full transcript, references, contact information, and more available at thenatureofphenology.wordpress.com About the host/wri...

Producers: Hazel Stark & Joe Horn Host: Hazel Stark Hermit thrushes in the east are ground-nesting birds who tend to make their nests under shrubs or in a dense thicket. You might find a nest in a forest near you if you’re a careful observer. Photos, a full transcript, references, contact information, and more available at thenatureofphenology.wordpress.com About the host/writers: Joe Horn li...

Producers: Hazel Stark & Joe Horn Host: Hazel Stark Watch for a large green leaf climbing across the window at night. It might just be a katydid, whose song can be heard this time of year throughout most of the state. Photos, a full transcript, references, contact information, and more available at thenatureofphenology.wordpress.com About the host/writers: Joe Horn lives in Gouldsboro, is Co-...