Megan's Nature Nook
Nature Notes, Phenology, Photography, Fun Facts, Trips, Maybe Even a Bad Joke or Two... and More!
November is said to be the cloudiest month of the year in the Upper Midwest. Sometimes it seems to get a little dreary because of all the clouds, short days, brown grass, and fallen leaves. Because of this, November often gets a bad wrap as being a depressing month. December is also a contender for "Cloudiest Month" but maybe we overlook that fact because all the Christmas lights brighten things up? Why is November so cloudy? As we get closer to winter, main jet stream winds are heading Southward out of Canada increasing the amount of stormy weather across the northern states, thus bringing cloud cover with it. Also, the low angle of the sun this time of year makes it hard for low-level clouds and fog to evaporate or “burn off” as the day goes on. This map by Dr. Brian Brettschneider shows the cloudiest month of the year all over the U.S. Since November is supposed to be the cloudiest month in Minnesota, I wanted to keep track and see how many cloudy days Minnesota actually has in November, so I created a calendar in my Nature Journal. I wasn’t too scientific about my recordings and just mentally took note throughout the day of what the sky was looking like. I also didn’t really pay much attention to cloud cover during the night, just daylight hours when I could observe the sky. Then at the end of the day, I filled out the square for that date. It was pretty easy. I do have to admit though, I wasn’t always on top of it, and would sometimes be sitting there trying to fill out two or three days worth going, “was it sunny on my drive into work on Wednesday?” Or asking others, “was it cloudy yesterday? All day?” Some days were easy to record if they were sunny or cloudy all day, others were a little more complicated with the ever-changing weather Minnesota has to offer. It could go from sunny to snowing in a matter of minutes. Here are some closeups of a few days: Each day I recorded 4 things: 1. Date – Already marked on my calendar 2. City – Since I wasn’t always in the same city each day, (but was still in MN), I wrote the name of the city going up the right side of the box. 3. Drawing of the sky – I drew the sky in the top half of the box, sometimes with a separating line if it was different in the AM vs. PM. 4. Word Description of the sky – The bottom of the box was used to write descriptions about the drawing, slightly more detailed. At the end of the month I had my completed calendar! Here are my results: Days with Clouds: 22 Days with No Clouds: 8 (or very few passing clouds) Since December is a contender for “Cloudiest Month,” I'm going to continue my nature journaling calendar so I can compare November and December. It would also be interesting to compare the month of November year after year to see how things vary. Dr. Brian Brettschneider also has some other interesting maps comparing November and December Cloudiness. Arizona looks like the place to be in November and December if you don't like cloudy weather! Hawaii and Minnesota are surprisingly quite similar in cloudiness this time of year, so you better wait to book those plane tickets. I found it pretty interesting to keep track of what the sky was doing each day, and it was quite easy to record. Try starting a nature journaling calendar of your own by either making one, or recording your findings on a calendar you already have. You can try keeping track of the high and low temps, wind speeds, precipitation, sky cover, or anything else you find of interest! A great thing about Nature Journaling is you can do whatever you want, however you want – make it your own!
P.S. I tried to catch some fog earlier. I mist.
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Seeing geese flying overhead in their big V formations this time of year makes me think about one of the many interesting encounters with visitors I have had over the years while working with the public. One of the places I worked we had the "Pizza Book" where we would write down interesting encounters and things people would say and do. You would not believe some of the questions or comments we would get, and the stories that were written in that book! All real things that happened during a normal work day. My parents always enjoy hearing about my stories from work!
One summer (either 2014 or 2016) when I was working at Itasca State Park as part of the Naturalist Corp, I was doing a Nature Cart about Hummingbirds. An older man came up to me and was telling me how hummingbirds migrated with geese and just hitched a ride south with them by sitting on their backs or tucking under the “arm pits” of their wings. He said he knew a guy who went goose hunting and shot a goose that had a hummingbird or two with it. And he said that man was an honest man and wouldn’t lie about it. Maybe he wouldn’t lie, but had fun pulling someone’s leg… Until that summer I had never heard of such a thing. Hummingbirds riding on geese to go south?! How could anyone think that to be true? In case you are thinking, “well, that would be a pretty smart thing for hummingbirds to do…” let me show you the facts and debunk this myth. Migration Time: Hummingbirds – Late August to early September Canada Geese – Still migrating even now in November Destination: Hummingbirds – Mexico and Central America Geese – South East U.S. Elevation: Hummingbirds – Tree top height, or just above the waves when crossing large bodies of water Geese – As high as 29,000 feet Resting Spots: Hummingbirds – Areas with flowering plants or hummingbird feeders Geese – Wetlands or fields As you can see, there are many differences between the migration of hummingbirds and Canada geese to show that in fact, hummingbirds do not hitch rides south with geese. Although, it is a fun story to tell and even funnier to picture the hummingbird strapping into its little airplane seat on the back of a goose and waiting for flight attendants to come by with nectar cocktails. It is quite impressive how birds know when and where to migrate and how they can make it past all sorts of obstacles on their way. Migration truly is a remarkable thing birds do; whether solo like hummers do, or with a whole bunch of others in a V formation like geese. Nature is quite amazing. Happy Thanksgiving! I know I am a little early, but this will give you a chance to memorize these turkey facts and practice your delivery of these cheesy jokes to wow your dinner guests! 10 Things You Didn’t Know About Wild Turkeys!
1. They can run at a speed of 25 mph, and fly at 55 mph 2. A group of turkeys has many names, the usual “flock” and these other fun ones too: crop, dole, gang, posse, rafter, and raffle. 3. Their head can change color from red, white, or blue with excitement or emotion. 4. The piece of skin that hangs down on the face over the beak is called a Snood, while the red dangly part under the chin is a Wattle. 5. Turkey scat (the scientific word for poop) can be used to determine the gender of the turkey who left it behind. Females have a spiral-shaped pile of scat, while males’ scat is J shaped. 6. Turkeys have great eye sight. They can see in color, and 3 times better than humans. 7. When needed, turkeys can swim by spreading their tails, tucking in their wings, and kicking their feet. 8. Turkeys have 5,000-6,000 feathers, 18 of those being the large feathers that make up the tail fan. 9. A turkey’s gobble can be heard up to 1 mile away. 10. Turkeys can eat acorns swallowed whole. You didn't know turkeys were so interesting, now did you? Now for the jokes!... Q: Who is never hungry on Thanksgiving? A: The turkey because he’s already stuffed! Q: Why did the turkey sit on the tomahawk? A: To hatchet Q: What is it called when a turkey fumbles in football? A: A fowl play Q: What sound does a limping turkey make? A: Wobble, wobble! If you know me, I love a good (or should I say bad) joke! I hope your guests enjoy them as much as I do! In honor of our wonderful turkeys, here is a throwback to my first Tom, Senior year of high school. And also, a shout out to my Aunt Sue and Uncle Brad (Sue, make sure he sees that I am giving him credit since he is never tagged on Facebook!) for taking me, and more recently, Tony, turkey hunting! Usually once a week I work down at the Rapids Lake Education & Visitor Center in Carver, MN. Last week, after a walk, on my way back up the path to the Visitor Center, I stopped at the bird feeders for a bit to watch. Right away something unusual caught my eye. Its white body stuck out from the brown, tan, and green vegetation under the feeders. Was it a bird? A mouse? A squirrel?? Yes, it was a squirrel! But not just any squirrel; a partially bald Red Squirrel (Tamiasciurus hudsonicus) with a mohawk down its back! I had never seen anything like this before, so I reached into my coat pocket and pulled out my phone to see if I could snap a picture before it scurried away. Unfortunately for me, my phone does not have a very good camera, but I did manage to get a few pictures. Despite having terrible pictures, I was still pretty excited about this crazy bald squirrel I had seen so I sent a few pictures to my nature loving friends anyways. I wanted to share with them this very interesting, very odd, little red squirrel! Two days later I was down at the Rapids Lake again and kept checking out the window to see if I could spot “Baldy.” I hadn’t seen him all morning and was starting to wonder if something had happened, but in the afternoon, I finally saw him eating seeds under the feeders. This week I remembered to bring my camera in hopes of seeing Baldy and being able to get a better picture. Lucky for me, when I looked out the window at lunch, Baldy was there again under the feeders. I quickly grabbed my camera and stealthily snuck up to the feeders to get a few pictures. Here is Baldy: See how he has just a narrow strip of hair down his back, and some on the front legs, head, and feet? And he’s missing the fluffy squirrel tail! The Naturalist in me had me wondering why this little squirrel was partially bald, so I did a little research on hair loss in squirrels. Here is what I found: Hairless Squirrel Causes 1. Mange - caused by microscopic mites that burrow into the skin.
I am guessing that Baldy has a fungal disease since his skin doesn’t seem to have any problems, just the hair issue. Also, he does seem to have some white fuzz on the “bald” spots, which could be a result of hair breaking off near the skin. Hopefully he can build up immunity soon and start growing hair back before it gets too cold! Otherwise he may be needing a squirrel sized sweater. As for now, it doesn’t seem to be bothering him. I’ll continue to keep an eye out for Baldy and hopefully see some hair growing back soon. Until then, maybe the mohawk will make him look like a Tough Guy Squirrel and he won’t be made fun of for balding by the other squirrels and birdies at the feeder. Come see Baldy for yourself at the Rapids Lake Education & Visitor Center under the feeders happily munching away. For more information about Squirrel Hair Loss, visit: https://www.agriculture.purdue.edu/fnr/wildlife/newsletter/may05.html https://sciencing.com/squirrels-lose-hair-5090876.html UPDATE: To read an update on Baldy the squirrel and hear how he is doing, click on the button below lI recently, (like 3 days ago) decided I wanted to try something new: Blogging. Being a Naturalist/Environmental Educator/Zookeeper/Intern-of-many-places/General Outdoors Enthusiast I have had the opportunity to learn about, see, and do some pretty cool things! And I love whenever I get the chance to share those things with others. I hope my passion for the natural world will have the ripple effect and get others interested in and out exploring nature, too. Maybe even loving it as much as I do!
Stay tuned for more posts, and we’ll see where this new adventure leads me! I should note that I am the kind of person that doesn't like others reading what I write, so this will be a change for me! Something else I have recently decided to try (I must be on a roll or something) is starting a Nature Journal. I had thought about doing it before, but was always waiting for that perfect, opportune time – like the first of the year, or the first day of Spring. At work during our training in September, we talked about nature journaling and the different ways you can do it. We were also gifted some small, spiral bound, blank page journals to start with. Since I hadn’t yet taken advantage of the “first days” that had already passed, I figured I should just start and go from there. I’d consider myself as a casual journal keeper since I don’t do it every day, but when I see something interesting, notice a phenology event, or learn a new fun fact I add it to my journal. Slowly but surely the pages are filling up. Here is an excerpt from a journal entry on Tuesday, November 7, 2017 about the changing of seasons: November 7, 2017 – Tuesday 35* Sunny, 2:00 – 2:30 p.m. Minnesota Valley National Wildlife Refuge – Rapids Lake Unit, Carver, MN This time of year can often be thought of as depressing, sad, and gloomy because of the cooler temps, many cloudy days, and shorter amount of daylight. We also see the leaves fall from the trees and other plants withering away or turning brown. Although it all may seem sad to see our pretty, brightly colored flowers and cheery green plants disappearing, they are making way for a new season! The transition to winter is among us! Think of the big, fluffy snowflakes gently falling to the ground, or sticky snow coating every branch and surface it can cling to, creating a winter wonder land! These cooler days are also cooling the waters, and even forming ice on some bodies of water. We have said good bye to our familiar warm season chatty birds, but now we welcome our winter friends to our feeders. So although some days may leave us feeling a bit glum, we know that something beautiful, new, and exciting is on the horizon! If there has been something you’ve been wanting to try, but just haven’t gotten around to it yet or maybe you aren’t sure how to start, just try it! What’s the harm in trying? At least then you’ll know the end result and won’t be left wondering “what if?” |
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