Megan's Nature Nook
Nature Notes, Phenology, Photography, Fun Facts, Trips, Maybe Even a Bad Joke or Two... and More!
With Valentine’s Day upon us, the topic of love in the animal world and mating rituals seemed appropriate. Human mating rituals include activities from offering food, to giving gifts, and even dancing. Animals have similar rituals, but there are some species who take it a step farther and have very interesting and odd rituals! We'll start with some cute ways animals show love and we’ll work our way to the very odd and crazy ones! Let’s start with some birds and their cute and loving rituals. Bowerbirds Bowerbirds are found in Australia and PauPau New Guinea. Males build twig structures called bowers to attract females. They decorate the bowers with natural and manmade material and have an affinity to blue items. The males will dance near his bower and show females his colorful objects to woo her. There is some research showing that he will try to trick her with optical illusions, placing larger objects farther away and smaller ones up close to make himself appear larger with the optical illusion. Dancing Birds There are many birds that dance to attract their mates, some well known dancing species are Sage Grouse, Prairie Chickens, Grebes, Sandhill Cranes, and Hummingbirds.
Prairie Vole Prairie Voles are monogamous and affectionate mammals. They can sense when their partner is stressed and gives the equivalent of hugs and kisses to make them feel better. They take their relationship seriously and will run off other Prairie Voles. Researchers tested their fidelity while under the influence and females stuck with their mate while males were more likely to wander from their mate when drunk. I’m not sure why they tested this theory or how the intoxicated these little voles, but maybe animals aren’t that different than people... Adelie Penguin Adelie Penguins make their nests out of rocks. Males will look on rocky beaches for smooth, shiny pebbles to bring to females. If she likes the pebble, she’ll use it to line her nest and mate with the male. If the males wanders off, the female will mate with other males who bring pebbles she likes. Here is where the cute rituals start to turn weird and a little morbid... Nursery Web Spider Males bring food wrapped in silk to the female to request to mate. It sounds like a nice gift, but the male may trick the female. He may eat the food but leave the exoskeleton and wrap it up or even wrap up a stick instead of food to trick her. The female is not happy when she finds out she has been tricked! North American Porcupine Females have a very short mating window of only 8 – 12 hours once a year! To woo a female, males will climb a tree and pee on her, from up to seven feet away! If she likes how it smells she will mate with him until he tires out. Despite their short mating window, they are successful 90% of the time. I work with porcupines and I can tell you they don’t smell very good, so female porcupines must have a different sense of what a nice cologne smells like! Fireflies With most firefly species, only the male will blink to attract females. Each species has its own blinking pattern to attract mates of its own kind. There is one species where the female will mimic blinks of other species to lure them in and then eats them! That’s one way to take out the competition! Praying Mantis Males are lured to the female by pheromones. If she like the male she will mate with him, but if she doesn’t, she’ll bite his head off! During mating season, males can make up 60% of the female’s diet. Females that eat males lay more eggs. Last but not least the Angler Fish! This “love” is quite intense, the poetic phrase of “and two shall become one” has a whole new meaning with these fish! Angler Fish Angler fish live in the dark depths of the ocean where it can be hard to find a mate. When a male finds a female, he will bite her to attach himself to her and lives as a parasite on her body. Over time the male becomes absorbed into the female, even sharing a circulatory system. All that remains of the male is the gonads that the females uses for reproduction when she’s ready. More than one male can be attached to a female at a time! Well, there you have it. Love comes in many different shapes and sizes. It varies from gift giving and wooing, to food and consumption – each species having their own unique spin on things. This Valentine’s Day you can woo your loved one with some interesting animal love facts! And maybe a box of chocolates, too. P.S. THANK YOU to everyone who has supported me by reading and sharing blog posts and subscribing to my e-mail list! This is the 100th blog post that I've written and your support is greatly appreciated!
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We’ve all had that moment when you’re driving in the dark and suddenly you see eyes glowing on the side of the road! But why does that happen? Why do animals’ eyes seem to glow in the dark but not humans’ eyes? Many animals, especially ones that are more active at night, have a special reflective surface behind the retina called the tapetum (Ta-PEA-tum) lucidum or “tapestry of light.” This reflective surface helps them to see better in low light conditions, but how exactly does that work? Light such as moonlight or starlight enters the eye and hits photoreceptors that transmit information to the brain. Sometimes there is not enough light for the brain to process an image, so the tapetum lucidum works like a mirror and bounces light back for a second chance for the photoreceptors to capture the information for the brain to process. Not all animals have a tapetum lucidum. Animals that do have it are usually most active at night. The tapetum lucidum boosts their night vision and helps them to see in low light conditions. There are many mammals, reptiles, invertebrates (like spiders), amphibians, and some nocturnal birds that have a tapetum lucidum. Owls which are often active at night do not have a tapetum lucidum but have other adaptations that help them to see at night. Although humans’ eyes may “glow” red in photographs we do not have a tapetum lucidum. What you are seeing when that happens is the flash reflecting off red blood cells behind the retina.
When you’ve seen an animal’s eyes glow, have you ever noticed that the color of the eyes can vary? Glow or eyeshine color can vary by species so you can sometimes use it to help identify the animal in the dark. Different eyeshine colors are caused by the mineral content (like Riboflavin or Zinc) in the tapetum lucidum and pigment amounts in the retina. Age of the animal can also affect the color so color isn’t always a dependable way to identify an animal. Although color can vary for each individual, even animals of the same species, there are a few generalizations that can help you identify whose eyes are glowing even if you can’t see the rest of the animal. Deer generally have a white glow, raccoons have yellow, and house cats are green. While researching I found many lists with more animals and colors, but with cross referencing not many of them added up. This could be because of how people perceive colors, yellow to one person may look more orange to another. Or the mineral content, eye pigment, and animal ages cause enough of a variation that you can’t easily categorize all individuals of a species into one color category. Luckily there are more things we can look at the help identify an animal in the depths of night. Besides the eyeshine color, you can look at the shape and size of the eye, placement (side vs front) on the head, pupil slit orientations (think cat eyes), and the height of the eyes (small animal would be closer to the ground than a larger animal). Now the next time you see eyes shining back at you in the depths of the night, you’ll know why and you’ll be able to identify who those eyes belong to! Fall is a time when animals have to get serious about how they’re going to survive winter. Will they hibernate, migrate, adapt, or die? Cooler temperatures, shorter amount of daylight, and dwindling food sources are some factors that contribute to their survival decisions. When you hear the word “hibernation” the pictures that pops into your head is most likely a black bear (Ursus americanus). Although we often think of a bear when thinking of hibernation, bears actually don’t hibernate. They do something else called torpor which is similar to hibernation but not as extreme. Hibernation An example of a true hibernator would be a woodchuck (Marmota monax), also known as groundhog or whistle pig. In September - October, woodchucks begin going into their winter dens for hibernation. Once they are asleep, they stay asleep and don’t eat or drink during their slumber. Since they don’t eat during hibernation, woodchucks have to conserve their energy by slowing down bodily functions. A woodchuck’s usual body temperature is around 99°F, during hibernation they drop their body temperature down to around 37 - 40°F, not much above freezing. They slow their heart rate from 75 - 80 beats per minute in warmer weather down to 4 or 5 beats per minute during hibernation, and their breathing rate slows dramatically. These extreme reductions help to conserve energy during their long sleep so they only loose about one fourth of their body weight during their months of not eating. After a few months of hibernation, the woodchucks will emerge in March or April, depending on their region – which is a bit late for Groundhog’s Day! Although, males will often wake in February to locate females, then head back to sleep for another month or so until it is time to mate. Once they’re out and about for the warmer months, woodchucks will spend their days eating and fattening up - preparing for the next hibernation. A woodchuck can eat up to 1 pound of vegetation in one sitting! Woodchucks are not the only mammals that are true hibernators in Minnesota. Ground squirrels and four species of bats join them in this category. Torpor Now onto torpor. Torpor is similar to hibernation with the slowing down of bodily functions, but not as extreme. You’ve heard the expression “don’t poke the bear” well that is true! During torpor bears can wake up easier due to torpor not being as extreme as true hibernation and will wake up periodically throughout the winter. In October – November bears will find their den and gather leaves and sticks to line it as their final preparations for their long winter slumber. Bears rely on photoperiod (day length) and the availability of food to know when it’s time to head to bed. Temperature doesn’t play much of a part, except it does tend to coincide with shorter days and dwindling food sources. While in torpor bears will not eat, drink, or go to the bathroom for months on end. In order to prepare for this, they must forage for food all summer long to pack on the pounds. Mid-summer to the end of autumn a bear can consume up to 20,000 calories a day! Resulting in putting on 4 - 5 inches of body fat to help them survive a winter of cold weather and no eating.
A bear’s normal body temperature is around 100°F, during torpor they will decrease it about 10-12°F to around 88°F. Their heart rate decreases to 8 - 19 beats per minute, and their breathing rate is one breath every 45 seconds. These decreases are not as extreme as our woodchucks, but still help to conserve energy all winter long. A bear will typically lose 20 – 30% of its body weight during torpor, with some females loosing up to 40% if they had cubs and were nursing during torpor. Come April, the bear will awaken and emerge from its den, searching for food to begin the preparation for its next torpor session. Bears aren’t the only animals that go into torpor. Hummingbirds, raccoons, skunks, and chickadees are just a handful of other animals that do! Animals typically enter torpor because of the low availability of food for a period of time. Each animal has their own form of torpor that best suits their lifestyle and needs. Some will go into torpor for a few hours and for others it may be days or even months. Even in the warm weather of summer, Ruby-throated Hummingbirds lower their body temperature and heart rate during the night to conserve energy. If they didn’t do this, they wouldn’t be able to survive through the night because of their fast metabolisms and the need to feed often. During winter raccoons will come out during warm days to look for food but will sleep more often and spend much of their time cuddled up with their families in dens. During winter skunks they will enter long periods of sleep and wake occasionally, during torpor they slow their metabolism and decrease their body temp by 20°F. Chickadees decrease their body temperature at night to conserve energy in the winter. It is amazing to see the different ways these animals can conserve their energy in order to survive our cold and sometimes quite harsh Minnesota winters! Fun Fact: Bears can’t hibernate because of their large body mass and surface area. There is too much surface area for body heat to be lost. If their resting temperature was close to freezing like true hibernators, they would be more susceptible to their body temperature lowering too much and their cells freezing. With snow and colder weather upon us, many animals have either migrated to warmer areas, or snuggled into their winter dens for the next few months. Although many animals either migrate or hibernate for the winter we have quite a few hardy animals who stick it out and adapt to the changing weather. Each animal has their own strategy for surviving the cold months ahead. Storing up food for the upcoming winter is the top priority for most animals. However, how they gather and store their food varies with each species and some even have an extra trick up their sleeves to help them! Tree Squirrels Tree squirrels: Fox Squirrels, Gray Squirrels, Red Squirrels, and Flying Squirrels, all cache food for the winter. Red Squirrels and Flying Squirrels will usually store their food in a main area or have a few main caches. Fox and Gray Squirrels on the other hand participate in scatter hoarding, where they burry nuts in individual locations. This can add up to be hundreds or thousands of different hiding spots they have to remember. So how can they remember all of those hiding spots? Many trees only produce nuts in the fall. In order to ensure a large enough food supply to last them through the winter, squirrels have to gather and store as many nuts as they can before the snow falls and the weather gets too cold. To help them remember where they stored all their nuts, their brain does something extraordinary, it grows! Specifically, the hippocampus, which is the memory and spatial organization area of the brain, increases 15% in size in the fall. This increase helps them to remember where a majority of those hundreds or thousands of nuts they scatter hoarded are. The increased brain size especially helps them after the snow has fallen, making it harder to sniff out nuts and making the squirrels easier targets for predators to spot and catch. Squirrels do some other interesting things that help them in their food storage habits. Once they find a nut, they will hold it in their paws and shake it to weigh it and determine if it has any insects in it. If it is light weight, most likely an insect is inside and has been eating it. If that is the case, they will eat the nut and insects right away because they know if they cache it, the insects may eat it before they get a chance to. If the nut is heavy with no insects, they will proceed to find a hiding spot for it. Studies have shown that squirrels will categorize where certain types of nuts are stored. They’ll have walnuts in one area and acorns in another which may help them to better remember the hiding spots since they’re more organized. After the initial hiding they will continue to interact with their caches, visiting spots where they’ve been buried, sniffing around, and even digging up and reburying nuts in a new spot. This can help them to better remember where each nut is hidden and build their mental nut map. It is also thought that digging fake holes and digging up and reburying nuts might deceive any onlookers that may try to steal their caches. Chickadees Squirrels aren’t the only critters whose brains grow to help with food caching. In late summer and early fall the brains of Chickadees grow. The brain growth is happening in the hippocampus just like the squirrels and increases by approximately 30% by adding new nerve cells. In Chickadees, neurons are replaced periodically. Studies suggest that they are able to discard cells that have old memories and replace them with new cells where they can store new memories, such as where they hid a seed. Then in the spring when they no longer have such a need for hiding spot memory, their hippocampus shrinks back down to normal size. Shrews Unlike squirrels and Chickadees, shrews have a different brain winter survival tactic. Instead of growing part of their brain to help with the memory of food caches, they do the opposite. Their skulls and brains shrink! Their skulls will shrink an average of 15% and they loose between 20-30% of brain mass. The joints between the bones of the skull reabsorb tissue during the fall and winter, the tissue will then regenerate in the spring, “growing” the skull back to almost its former size. The skulls and brains aren’t the only things that shrink for the winter in shrews. Other organs lose mass and the spine shortens, reducing the overall body mass of the shrew by about 18%. This act of shrinking in the winter is call Dehnel’s Phenomenon. Luckily for the shrew, in the spring their body mass will rebound to 83% of what it was previously. So, they will be slightly smaller than the previous year, but larger than they were during the winter. It is thought that the reason for this phenomenon may be to conserve energy. Less mass means the need for less food. Shrews are one of the smallest mammals yet have a high metabolic rate causing the need to eat every few hours. Since they cannot migrate far distances to warmer weather and don’t hibernate, winter shrinkage helps them to survive the cold winters. Shrews live an average of 1-2 years so the compounding shrinkage year after year doesn’t really affect them. Who knew all these little critters could do such amazing things to help them survive winter?
Spring time means baby time in the animal world. People love animals so much that they try to do whatever they can to help wildlife, but unfortunately this time of year, we humans often do more harm than help. Here are a few tips for what to do if you find an animal you think is sick, injured, or orphaned.
Deer Fawn Fawns (baby deer) are born with no scent to help protect them from predators. The mother deer leaves the fawn for extended periods of time during the day, only coming in the early morning and evening to feed the fawn. Because of this the fawn can seem abandoned or orphaned, but in reality, they are perfectly fine. If you find a fawn do not touch or move it! The oils from your skin will leave your scent on the fawn, which could cause the mother to abandon it. If you are concerned that a fawn has been orphaned, watch it for a few hours (in the morning and evening) from a distance to see if the mother comes to feed it. It is best to watch from indoors because if you are too close and the mother sees you, she may not come back until you are gone. Bird Chicks Baby birds are often found when they’ve fallen out of their nests or if their nest has fallen after a windy day or storm. If you find a chick and are able to locate and reach the nest, you can place the chick back into the nest. Wear a pair of gloves like gardening gloves while doing this. If you cannot locate or reach the nest, you can place the chick in a small box or container (like a cool whip container) with a paper towel or piece of cloth in the bottom to prevent the bird from slipping. Place the container in a nearby tree or anywhere up off the ground and out of reach from any children or pets. When the chick calls for food the parents will be able to find it. You can do the same if you have found a nest that fell out of a tree. When chicks are just learning to fly and leave the nest they are fully feathered but still working on their flight skills. They can tire easily so are often seen fluttering close to the ground but not able to get much height which makes them appear injured. The parents are nearby watching and will still care and feed their young. If you see a bird that appears to not be able to fly, monitor it for a few hours to see if the parents come to it. Keeps pets indoors or on a leash to keep the young birds safe. Squirrels Squirrel babies can be cared for in a similar manner to bird chicks. If you find one that has fallen out of the nest, use gardening gloves to place it back in the nest. If you cannot reach or locate the nest, you can place it in a small box or container lined with paper towels or cloth and place it in a nearby tree or at least up and off the ground out of reach of pets and children, but in a place where the parents can get to it. The parents will be able to locate the babies by listening for their cries when they get hungry. If a whole nest is displaced, place the babies in a box or container and place in a nearby tree, again, the parents will be able to find them. Rabbits Rabbits don’t have much of a nest, but instead have a shallow depression in the ground that may have leaves or grass in it. Mother rabbits leave their nests unattended for long periods of time and only come to feed the babies in the early morning and evenings. If you think the babies are orphaned, monitor the nest for a few hours in the morning and evening to see if the mother is coming. If you are unable to watch the nest, you can lay twigs overtop in a tic-tac-toe pattern, or make a circle of flour around the nest. When the mother comes she will move the twigs or disturb the flour making it easy to tell if she had been there or not. Rabbits are able to survive on their own at a young age when they are still very small. If the baby is up and moving around, it is old enough to be on its own. Raccoons Raccoons are usually suspected of being orphaned when they are at the weanling stage. When they are about the size of a football, the mother starts to wean them off of milk. She will often times leaves them alone and they are seen wandering around (during the daytime, too) looking for her to beg for milk. They will usually be screaming or whining. If they are about a foot long, or the size of a football, they are old enough to be on their own. If you come across and animals who you think is in need, first take the time to assess the situation to see if human intervention is needed. We do not give animals the credit they deserve, they are much better at raising their young than we think. If you have a situation that you are unsure about, contact a licensed wildlife rehabilitation BEFORE doing ANYTHING. Touching, offering water, or feeding an animal can be detrimental to its health and life. In many cases people are just trying to help an animal they think is sick, injured, or orphaned that really does not need help. By them stepping in they could cause the animal to become sick or injured and even rejected by its mother. There are times when rehabilitation is needed, but a majority of the time humans are just causing the problems. Please think through a situation before rushing in to be the hero. Don’t be a baby-napper! When I was in college I spent a summer working at the Northwoods Wildlife Rehabilitation and Education Center in Minocqua, Wisconsin. I worked on both the rehabilitation and education side of the facility. They do a great job caring for all of the animals they get in and are able to release a great deal of them back into the wild. Spring and summer were their busiest seasons because of all the babies. It was hard to see all the critters that were baby-napped and miss cared for because people just didn’t know any better. If you want to help wildlife, leave it alone. The animals know what to do. Working at Northwoods was a very good experience for me because I got to learn hands on about the wildlife that lives in our own backyards. It was a very time consuming and labor-intensive internship, but also very rewarding. I was able to experience firsthand how much work it takes to care for a baby wild animal. Did you know some very young birds have to be fed every half an hour from 6 am – 8 pm, and again at 3 am? Or that baby raccoons have to be bottle fed 4 times a day? It was very eye opening to see all the work and energy that went into caring for all the animals that were brought in and to see the variety of reasons for admittance into the rehabilitation center. So this year, do your part to help the wildlife in your neck of the woods and help educate others by passing this information on!
Northwoods Wildlife Center has a great resource page about what to do if you find an animal that may need help: https://northwoodswildlifecenter.org/i-found-an-animal/ MN Licensed Rehab Facilities Wildlife Rehabilitation Center of Minnesota - Roseville, MN 651-486-9453 https://wrcmn.org/ Wildwoods – Duluth, MN 218-491-3604 https://wildwoodsrehab.org/ Wild & Free - Garrison, MN 320-692-4180 http://wildandfree.org/contact-us/ The Raptor Center – St. Paul, MN 612-624-4745 https://www.raptor.umn.edu/ Earlier this week, looking out the window we noticed a few scattered feathers and what appeared to be a bird laying on top of the snow near the base of a tree. Getting a closer view with my binoculars we could see it was the body of an American Robin that had most likely been preyed on by a hawk, but dropped and never retrieved. The body was mostly intact with a few stray feathers and no tracks or other signs around. Today a squirrel happened to catch my eye as I was passing by the same window. I could see his little nose hard at work as it sniffed around near the body of the bird. Before long, the squirrel found the bird and without hesitation grabbed the body and ran up a nearby tree. He perched himself in the sun on a branch and proceeded to eat the bird like it was a chicken wing. Once he had his fill, he stashed the rest of the bird in a crook of the tree and scampered off. Most people think of squirrels as herbivores, mainly eating things like nuts and seeds. Squirrels do eat a lot of nuts and seeds, but Eastern Grey Squirrels (Sciurus carolinensis) are classified as omnivores meaning they eat plant materials and meat. Grey Squirrel diets are mostly made up of nuts, seeds, buds, flowers, fruit, and fungi but they will occasionally raid nests for eggs and chicks, sometimes even killing adult birds. They will also eat insects, worms, young snakes, and may be seen nibbling on roadkill. Squirrels aren’t the only critters that may surprise you by what they eat. Deer on occasion have been documented eating meat like small mammals, chicks from ground nesting birds, and even organs from other deer carcasses. Mice will eat almost anything they can find and will eat worms, snails, and even each other. And those cute Black-capped Chickadees that frequent your feeder? They can be found eating the fat and meat off frozen carcasses. Most animals will stick within the bounds of their food categorization (omnivore, herbivore, carnivore) but this just goes to show that there are always exceptions! **Warning: The following pictures may be graphic and not suitable for everyone**
If you’re like me, this year I was stuck between fall and winter for a while. The cooler temps and snow make me think of Christmas time, but the bright pumpkins and gourds decorating the front of the house reminded me it was still fall. Last week at the start of December I decided it was finally time to say good bye to the last of the pumpkins we had. Each year after our carved Halloween pumpkins start getting droopy, and Thanksgiving has come and gone, we bring the pumpkins out to the woods to compost and possibly feed a critter or two. I set up my game camera to see who I would catch partaking in this after Thanksgiving feast. We were surprised by all the critters we had! Critter Role Call: Squirrels Male Northern Cardinal Cottontail Rabbit 2 Opossums A rather large raccoon Gray Fox Red Fox Doe & this year’s fawn Spike buck 2 four-point bucks 3 eight-point bucks Ten-point buck I expected a few deer and some squirrels, but not quite the variety we had! It has been fun seeing who’s visiting the pumpkin feast. You might be wondering at this point, they’re just pumpkins, why does everyone like them so much? For starters, every part is edible: the seeds, stem, guts, flesh, and skin – even the flowers and leaves from the vines. Secondly, they’re good for you! They are high in fiber and a good source of Vitamin A, Vitamin B, Potassium, Protein, and iron. All things that will help to keep the wildlife healthy. Pumpkins are a fruit, and a member of the gourd family. They are native to Central America and Mexico but have been growing in North America for five thousand years and are now grown on six continents (every continent but Antarctica). Pumpkin Fun Facts:
This winter I’ve been seeing lots of Virginia Opossum (Didelphis virginiana) tracks, and even spotted a few opossums, too! Opossums usually get a bad rap because people view them as bad and pest, when actually they are quite the opposite! Although they may not be the cutest to some, they actually are pretty awesome and important creatures! Here are a few quick facts about the Virginia Opossum:
Aren’t Opossums interesting? I bet you didn’t know a creature that we don’t see very often could have so many interesting things to know about it. And contrary to popular belief, they aren’t pests. They do quite a good job of minding their own business and helping us out in the dark hours of the night by taking care of yard and garden pests and helping to disperse the seeds they eat. Maybe they aren’t the cutest of critters, but they are awesome opossums and play an important role in the environment! If you thought these points were interesting, I encourage you to do more research about Opossums. There are plenty more fascinating facts about them to read! Also, check out: Opossum Awareness & Advocacy This week a co-worker and I were out on a hike at the Minnesota Valley National Wildlife Refuge when we came across an animal crime scene, or as we call it, WSI: Wildlife Scene Investigation. I will spare you the details (and most of the pictures) of this crime scene, but long story short, we believe an owl got an Eastern Cottontail Rabbit (Sylvilagus floridanus) as a meal. We found large blood spots, a blood trail, gut pile, fur, scat, and lastly, blue snow! I can see where most of these parts come into play during a predator-prey interaction, except for the blue snow – what in the world?! It turns out, rabbit urine can turn blue! When Eastern Cottontails eat the twigs and bark of Common Buckthorn (Rhamnus cathartica), an invasive species, their urine turns blue. A chemical in the Buckthorn is excreted in their urine. Initially the urine is yellowish to brown, but within 10 minutes or so, sunlight reacts with the chemical and changes the urine to blue. So, no you aren’t crazy, and no there aren’t smurfs running around in the woods; it’s just rabbits eating Buckthorn causing the blue snow.
Thank you to Elana for the photo and for always being up for a hiking adventure so we can find cool things like this! Happy Groundhog Day! My favorite Holiday! This morning, Groundhog Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow, meaning six more weeks of winter! I am excited about this forecast as long as it includes snow. Predictions: If Phil sees his shadow = 6 more weeks of winter If there is not a shadow = warmer weather is around the corner This 132-year-old tradition started in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania. But it had a history even before that. The tradition started in Europe as a Christian holiday, called Candlemas Day. Germans settling in Pennsylvania brought the tradition to America. In Europe, a hedgehog or badger was originally used. Once in America they were not able to find either of these animals in the wild, so that’s where the groundhog came in. Punxsutawney, PA even has the “Punxsutawney Groundhog Club” which has a group of men in the “Inner Circle.” These men are the ones in the top hats who care for Phil and plan all the Groundhog Day festivities in Punxsutawney. And let me tell you, there are a lot! Check out http://www.groundhog.org/fileadmin/user_upload/online2018guide.pdf to see all the festivities going on. A few fun facts:
Here is a poem for today from the one and only www.groundhog.org: Up early this morning Far from home Are you searching for the Phil-osopher's stone? Well, even my best friends They don’t know. Is it an early spring Or just more snow My faithful followers, your hands (and my paws) are getting cold So here is my forecast Not lead, but solid gold: I see my royal Shadow! Six more weeks of Winter to go! If you’re a fan of Groundhog Day like me, be sure to check out their website! www.groundhog.org. They even have t-shirts and Groundhog Day cards.
Happy Groundhog Day! |
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