Natural History Articles

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A few of the articles in newsletters, natural history magazines, FB posts etc of particular interest in relation to our Wabanaki Forest, and that can cheer us as well as inform us in these days so difficult for all species.

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– Vernal Pools: a Nursery for Amphibians and a Buffet for Predators
by Emily Haynes in The Outside Story (Northern Woodlands), Apr 14, 2025 “When the winter snow melts and the spring rain begins, vernal pools appear on the landscape. These ephemeral wetlands form in depressions in forests or ridge lines and offer essential breeding habitat to amphibians and invertebrates, including wood frogs, spotted salamanders, and fairy shrimp. Because vernal pools dry up in high summer and are disconnected from other waterways, fish cannot survive in them – making them uniquely attractive to many amphibian and invertebrate species.”

– Survival in the Cold
by Jen Weimer for The Outside Story (northernwoodlands.org), Mar 3, 2025 “The new year ushered in an arctic blast that has only recently let up. This extreme plunge in temperature is referred to as a polar vortex. While it may seem that this is a new term, it has been in use since the 1800s. These periods of intense cold can impact the survival of many native and invasive species, including plants and pests…Polar vortex events in the Northeast can have complex effects on native and invasive species. The cold snap associated with the vortex can kill invasive species less acclimated to the cold, but it can also select for hardier, more resilient populations – which can aid the survival of cold-tolerant invasives…The polar vortex can have a significant impact on hemlock woolly adelgid (Adelges tsugae) (HWA), though its effectiveness in controlling the invasive pest depends on how extreme and long-lasting the cold temperatures are, and when they occur.”

– How do Deer keep warm in winter?
by Helga Guderley on HFC Blog, Feb 15, 2025 “Winter is a hard season. While we relish going for a walk or ski in the snow, enjoying the changes in our familiar landscapes, most of us can warm up in our cozy homes afterwards. We enjoy our parkas and warm boots, but how do deer manage?…”

– The Unnatural History of Bird Flu
Brandon Keim for Nautilus, Feb 12, 2025 “In the facilities—the artificial ecosystems—that now house much of Earth’s terrestrial vertebrate biomass, constraints on virulence that prevail in natural ecosystems are not merely removed. Virulence is actually favored. In the words of Mark Woolhouse, an epidemiologist at the University of Edinburgh, the viruses are “a response to the selection pressures that exist in a human creation: the modern poultry farm.”

– Bees at Home in Holes and Hollows
by Jason Mazurowski for The Outside Story (Northern Woodlands) Feb 7, 2025. “Signs of overwintering bees can be found almost anywhere, with the exception of the European honeybee (Apis mellifera). Having evolved in the tropics, honeybees never experienced selection pressures resembling a New England winter. Instead of hibernating, they huddle together in the hive, sipping honey and generating warmth by movement. They emerge during thaws, searching in vain for floral rewards.cOur native bees, on the other hand, are well-adapted to winter and rely on environmental cues to time their emergence. Most solitary bees complete their larval stage and pupate during the growing season before entering diapause, a state of arrested development…”

– This land – your land – is a hummingbird garden
by Ruth Lapp, Feb 6, 2025 in Grandmother Birch Newsletter, reproduced on NSFM with permission. “Border-land transgressor, zip-line flyer, tenacious migrant, devout pilgrim – guided only by the sacred map of desire, imprinted on your heart since time began – you are Milita’w.This land – your land – is a hummingbird garden…Hummingbirds are considered, by people in the know, as messengers from the spirit world. And their message? Love, joy, healing, and renewal! And that dear reader is just about all that needs saying.”

– Burls vs. Galls
Kate MacQuarrie’s PEI Untamed, Feb 5, 2025 “Welcome back to Ask a Naturalist, your own personal Google for information on all things natural on PEI. Winter is great time to spot things in and on trees…Let’s look at galls and burls! Both galls and burls are abnormal growths on a tree. Although they can look alike and the terms are often used interchangeably, there are some important differences”.

– Northeastern Hawks Soaring through Winter
by Susan Shea for The Outside Story (Northern Woodlands), Feb 3, 2025 “Driving on Vermont’s Interstate highways in winter, I often notice large hawks perched in trees on woodland edges at regular intervals along the road. With the stark landscape providing better visibility and many bird species gone for the winter, this is a great time of year to hawk-watch.”

– More than a Nest: Squirrel Dreys
by Emily Haynes in The Outside Story Series, Northern Woodlands, Jan 27, 2025 “In the starkness of winter, squirrel dreys reveal themselves in the tree canopy. They’ve been there all along — just screened by trees’ leafy crowns for much of the year. Dreys are shaggy masses of leaves nestled against a tree trunk or cupped in a fork of branches 20 to 40 feet above the ground. Squirrels not only rear their kits in them but also use them as shelter during many months of the year. “It’s always kind of magical when the leaves fall down and you see these other homes of citizens in the neighborhood,” says Ken Benton, director of education at North Branch Nature Center in Montpelier, Vermont….”

– Etu’qamikejk Trail
About Mi’kmaw names for a trail and related landscape features in the Shaw Wilderness Park in Halifax. On backlandscoalition.ca, Jan 14, 2025 “Perhaps by practicing the pronunciation of the names as we walk the landscape, we can begin to understand how the “rhythms, sounds and patterns of the Mi’kmaw language are inextricably bound with the seasonal cycles of the animals plants, skies, waterways…” and become ever better stewards of the land in the process.”

– Bark Helps Trees Weather Winter
by Catherine Wessel in The Outside Series (Northern Woodlands Magazine) Jan 6, 2025 “One way trees endure winter is through adaptations in their bark. Cites features of Paper Birch, American beech, Quaking aspen, Eastern Hemlock, Eastern White Pine that better enable these species to tolerate extremes.

– Have you ever heard of the “subnivean” zone?U.S. Forest Service-Deschutes National Forest,Dec 28, 2024 “Have you ever heard of the “subnivean” zone? It’s the area between the surface of the ground and the bottom of the snowpack that’s home to mice, voles and shrews during the winter.
🏠Air gets trapped between snowflakes as they land creating insultation
🧊Heat from the animals below gets trapped forming an igloo effect
📐It takes about 6″ of snow to create a sturdy roof for their homes
🌡At 8″ of snow, the temperature stabilizes at 32 degrees within the zone
🎨: Kristin Link” Also view The Subnivean Zone: Shelter in the Snow, by by Barbara Mackay in Northern Woodlands, December 29th, 2014; and view more of Kristen Link’s Natural History Art at www.kristinlink.com/ Tip of the Hat to Bev W for this one

-The Evergreen Christmas Fern
by Susan Shea in The Outside Story (Northern Woodlands) Dec 16, 2024
“In winter, the fronds of these ferns are often flattened against the ground. Studies have shown that the first hard frosts stimulate development of a hinge zone at the base of the stem, which causes the fronds to fall over. The prostrate fronds benefit from the warmth and protection of leaf litter, which helps to prevent the leaves from freezing. Humidity is trapped beneath the ferns’ leaves, reducing desiccation. The leaves continue to photosynthesize during winter at a reduced rate. When fiddleheads emerge in spring, covered with silvery scales, the old fronds die. Spring Christmas ferns include fertile fronds in the center of the clump…”

– WHEN OAKS HANG ONTO THEIR DEAD LEAVES
On Wildflowers Wisconsin FB Page, Dec 7, 2024 “When trees hang onto their leaves, it’s called marcescence. Marcescence is the phenomenon where certain trees and plants, such as oaks, retain their dead leaves through the winter instead of shedding them in autumn. This occurs because the abscission layer, which normally allows leaves to detach, doesn’t fully develop. The exact reasons for marcescence are not entirely known, but several theories suggest it could protect buds from winter desiccation, provide nutrients to the soil when leaves eventually fall in spring, or deter herbivores with less palatable twigs. When I walk through the woods at this time of year, I see some oaks with leaves and some without. This is because some oak species are more prone to marcescence than others. Some juvenile species of oaks, commonly including bur oak, tend to keep their leaves. As trees mature, they tend to lose their leaves or only keep them on lower branches. I have also seen where they sporadically keep leaves top to bottom. Local climate and even genetic differences between trees of the same species can cause some to hold onto or lose their leaves differently. Comment: In NS, Beech and Witc Hazel also do it.