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 For the animals that stay active in winter, finding food, staying warm enough, and getting ready for mating season are the priorities. Any energy wasted on something else can be a fatal mistake. Knowing this, our black-capped chickadees have a complex social structure that helps prevent wasting energy from arguing in the winter. Photos, a fu...

Producers: Hazel Stark & Joe Horn Host: Hazel Stark Not all birds migrate away from Maine’s cold winter; some birds migrate to Maine as their winter respite from a much darker, colder season farther north. Photos, a full transcript, references, contact information, and more available at thenatureofphenology.wordpress.com The post The Nature of Phenology 2/6/21: Winter Birds first appeared on...

Producers: Hazel Stark & Joe Horn Host: Hazel Stark Why are ice and snow slippery enough to allow skates and skis to glide over them? Photos, a full transcript, references, contact information, and more available at thenatureofphenology.wordpress.com. The post The Nature of Phenology 1/30/21: Slippery Ice first appeared on WERU 89.9 FM Blue Hill, Maine Local News and Public Affairs Archives .

Producers: Hazel Stark & Joe Horn Host: Hazel Stark There are few sounds that conjure up a feeling of profound wilderness quite like the yodel and cry of a lone loon in the pitch black of a summer night. But now, across our frozen lakes and ponds, echoes not a single mournful wail of a loon. Surely the air-breathing loon isn’t hiding under the ice like a fish, nor is a loon nest as fortified...

Producers: Hazel Stark & Joe Horn Host: Hazel Stark Snow flies spend most of the year in the dark subterranean world, but on some of our coldest winter days, these adult flies come out to enjoy some sunshine and a brisk walk on the snow’s surface. Photos, a full transcript, references, contact information, and more available at thenatureofphenology.wordpress.com. The post The Nature of Phenol...

Producers: Hazel Stark & Joe Horn Host: Hazel Stark Learn about the science behind the delicate ghostly wisps of sea smoke appearing and disappearing in the arctic cold just above the ocean’s surface. Photos, a full transcript, references, contact information, and more available at thenatureofphenology.wordpress.com. The post The Nature of Phenology 1/9/21: Sea Smoke first appeared on WERU 89...

Producers: Hazel Stark & Joe Horn Host: Hazel Stark Like their local weasel relatives, minks stay active year-round. They are adept swimmers, allowing them to hunt for fish, frogs, and other aquatic animals underwater. But like us, they know the value of stocking up food for the winter and taking advantage of a big meal when they can. Photos, a full transcript, references, contact information...

Producers: Hazel Stark & Joe Horn Host: Hazel Stark Needle ice can take the rather banal form of crunchy ground on a cold morning, but it can also heave and deform the surface to reveal an explosion of ice crystals making elegant curls, sweeping arches, and even hold up a cap of frozen gravel. Photos, a full transcript, references, contact information, and more available at thenatureofphenolo...

Producers: Hazel Stark & Joe Horn Host: Hazel Stark Picture a wet duck standing on ice or paddling through sub-freezing ocean waters. How is it that their skinny feet, without fat or feathers for protection, don’t freeze? And what about the legs and feet of hooved mammals? Photos, a full transcript, references, contact information, and more available at thenatureofphenology.wordpress.com. The...

Producers: Hazel Stark & Joe Horn Host: Hazel Stark As our calendar draws near the darkest day of the year, night sets in early and I can see one constellation that signifies that it is time to do a little more early evening stargazing: Orion. Photos, a full transcript, references, contact information, and more available at thenatureofphenology.wordpress.com. The post The Nature of Phenology...

Producers: Hazel Stark & Joe Horn Host: Hazel Stark We mostly see red foxes in Maine, but southern Canada all the way to northern South America is also home to gray foxes. Here, these ten-pound gray foxes are more common in southern and midcoast Maine, but they are expanding their range northward. Red and gray foxes can look a lot alike, even though they are classified in different genera, bu...

Producers: Hazel Stark & Joe Horn Host: Hazel Stark Since these corpulent critters move slowly and do not see very well, the times of year when they need to cover more ground are the times when they are more likely to get hit by cars. This time of year, in late fall, is one of two seasons when porcupines are on the move. Photos, a full transcript, references, contact information, and more ava...

Producers: Hazel Stark & Joe Horn Host: Hazel Stark Paper birch, also known as white birch or canoe birch, is perhaps one of the most easy to identify northern trees thanks to its brilliantly white bark which peels readily into paper-like sections. The peak of their seed drop is in September through the end of November. Photos, a full transcript, references, contact information, and more avai...

Producers: Hazel Stark & Joe Horn Host: Hazel Stark Canoeing is not just a spring or summer activity. Canoeing in late fall reveals the busy world of wildlife making final preparations for winter. Photos, a full transcript, references, contact information, and more available at thenatureofphenology.wordpress.com The post The Nature of Phenology 11/14/20: November Canoeing first appeared on WE...

Producers: Hazel Stark & Joe Horn Host: Hazel Stark Contrary to popular belief, daddy long legs are not spiders. Like spiders and ticks, they are arachnids, but they are in a separate group from spiders. Daddy long legs are types of “harvestmen,” which are visually distinct from spiders due to their bodies appearing to be one oval—not segmented like spider bodies. Photos, a full transcript, r...

Producers: Hazel Stark & Joe Horn Host: Hazel Stark Nature is full of trick or treating opportunities year-round. But there is one kingdom in Maine whose dark door you best avoid on a fanciful trick or treating adventure: the taxonomic kingdom of fungi. Photos, a full transcript, references, contact information, and more available at thenatureofphenology.wordpress.com. The post The Nature of...

Producers: Hazel Stark & Joe Horn Host: Hazel Stark Come fall, the brook trout don their spawning colors and all colors become more rich and vivid and their flanks blaze with fiery red. For a fish that needs to stay camouflaged to both avoid predators and ambush unsuspecting fish, mice, and insects, these colors may seem gaudy and outrageous. That is, until you understand their native range....

Producers: Hazel Stark & Joe Horn Host: Hazel Stark That first crisp, cool breeze that hits us in late August has us scrambling for that favorite soft, warm layer we haven’t needed since early June. We also start turning to warmer, more unctuous meals as fall increases its grip. Likewise, deer engage in a diet and costume change. Photos, a full transcript, references, contact information, and...

Producers: Hazel Stark & Joe Horn Host: Hazel Stark Blueberry barrens in the fall seem to trick the brain—causing us to blink extra, rub our eyes, and reach out to touch the plants to confirm that such a sight is possible. Photos, a full transcript, references, contact information, and more available at thenatureofphenology.wordpress.com. The post The Nature of Phenology 10/10/20: October Blu...

Producers: Hazel Stark & Joe Horn Host: Hazel Stark “Invasion over,” is how my college dendrology professor characterized the non-native Rosa rugosa’s status. Beach rose is actually native to northeastern China, Japan, Korea, and southeastern Siberia. Despite all the damage beach rose has caused on the native dunes and beaches of the New England Coast, it has also bestowed upon us two great g...

Producers: Hazel Stark & Joe Horn Host: Hazel Stark Jack-in-the-pulpit’s single flower is mostly green and shaped like a pitcher. This odd structure is actually a modified leaf, called a spathe, which surrounds and forms a hood over the internal flower structure called a spadix. Evidently, whoever named the plant thought that the whole contraption looked something akin to a preacher ready to...

Producers: Hazel Stark & Joe Horn Host: Hazel Stark “Yellow jacket” is the name for a group of stinging insects that includes many different species and a couple genera in North America. With food sources decreasing as the growing season winds down matched with yellow jacket colonies at the peak of their annual populations, we are left with lots of stinging insects desperate for food. A perce...

Producers: Hazel Stark & Joe Horn Host: Hazel Stark With the encroachment of winter and being cold blooded, all of our amphibians get a bit creative with how they make it through the cold season. Toads get digging. Starting roughly in September, they will back themselves into the soil and use their powerful hind legs to excavate a burrow. Photos, a full transcript, references, contact informa...

Producers: Hazel Stark & Joe Horn Host: Hazel Stark Mullein, scientifically known as Verbascum thapsus, is not native to North America, though it is now considered naturalized as it has been here for more than 200 years. When Europeans came to North America in search of a better life, long before the Revolutionary War, their packing list included the seeds of mullein. Photos, a full transcrip...

Producers: Hazel Stark & Joe Horn Host: Hazel Stark When it comes to caterpillars, if they look a little crazy and colorful with spiky hairs and are as carefree as a porcupine in the lawn, it’s a good general rule not to touch them. Photos, a full transcript, references, contact information, and more available at thenatureofphenology.wordpress.com. The post The Nature of Phenology 8/29/20: Wh...