The Nature of Phenology

Producers: Hazel Stark & Joe Horn
Host: Hazel Stark

Field horsetail, known by botanists as Equisetum arvense, shares a rough resemblance to a young pine tree—green in color overall and somewhat like a bottle brush in shape. These ancient plants are easy to notice now as they are just starting to emerge from wet fields and ditches.

Photos, a full transcript, references, contact information, and more available at thenatureofphenology.wordpress.com.

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Producers: Hazel Stark & Joe Horn
Host: Hazel Stark

At first glance, coltsfoot flowers resemble dandelions. These two members of the Asteraceae family share the characteristic of having flower heads comprised of many individual flowers.

Photos, a full transcript, references, contact information, and more available at thenatureofphenology.wordpress.com.

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Producers: Hazel Stark & Joe Horn
Host: Hazel Stark

Last week we learned about the resounding success of alewife restoration efforts across the region due to dam removals and installation of better fish passage. Such efforts have resulted in tremendous revivals of alewife runs, such as on the mighty Penobscot River which just last year had a run of over 2.1 million fish. This increase in fish is not only a big win for conservation work and for that species in particular, but also represents an enriching in our whole community: fish, local ecosystems, and humans included.

Photos, a full transcript, references, contact information, and more available at thenatureofphenology.wordpress.com.

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Producers: Hazel Stark & Joe Horn
Host: Hazel Stark

Perhaps there has been no greater contemporary environmental success story in New England than that of one silvery springtime fish that is at this moment ascending the rapids, runs, and falls of our waterways as they head to their ancestral spawning grounds: alewives. This will be part one of a two-part series exploring these fish and the conservation work that brought them back.

Photos, a full transcript, references, contact information, and more available at thenatureofphenology.wordpress.com.

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Producers: Hazel Stark & Joe Horn
Host: Hazel Stark

In today’s episode, I will share some bird songs to be listening for now. If you’re a practiced birder-by-ear, stay tuned for some opportunities to quiz yourself; if you’re new to the birding-by-ear world, you might grab a piece of paper and writing utensil to take a few notes.

Photos, a full transcript, references, contact information, and more available at thenatureofphenology.wordpress.com.

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Producers: Hazel Stark & Joe Horn
Host: Hazel Stark

Crocuses are a collection of thirty or so species and a plethora of hybrids all in the scientific genus Crocus in the iris family. While crocuses seem quite at home here in New England and across the northern tier of the United States, they are, like so many of us, far from their ancestral roots.

Photos, a full transcript, references, contact information, and more available at thenatureofphenology.wordpress.com.

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Producers: Hazel Stark & Joe Horn
Host: Hazel Stark

Like the first spring sighting of a robin or the first blooming dandelion of the year, red-winged blackbirds can inspire the phenology observers in all of us. Males return ahead of the females to determine their territory and belt their characteristic radio static “conk-la-ree” calls from marshes throughout Maine.

Photos, a full transcript, references, contact information, and more available at thenatureofphenology.wordpress.com.

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Producers: Hazel Stark & Joe Horn
Host: Hazel Stark

There are twenty five species of chipmunks in the world, and all but one species is found in North America. The chipmunk species we have here in Maine is the eastern chipmunk, the biggest of all the chipmunks at up to eleven inches long and no heavier than a D-battery. February to April is the first of chipmunks’ two breeding seasons, so you may see them running around in pairs or making their characteristic “chipping” calls now.

Photos, a full transcript, references, contact information, and more available at thenatureofphenology.wordpress.com.

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