The Nature of Phenology

Producers: Hazel Stark & Joe Horn
Host: Hazel Stark

Highbush cranberries with their outrageously bitter and sour berries are one such fruit that will linger long into February, but it would appear that the dry fuzzy berries of sumac win as the least desirable and longest storing fruit of summer past, despite the fact that for us humans, sumac berries make a refreshing summer drink just as soon as they are ripe.

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

Most folks across the ruffed grouse’s range know them by that name, though if you have spent any time talking about wildlife in Maine, you likely know them by their colloquial name: partridges. Whatever you call them, partridges are chunky ground birds about the size and shape of a small chicken, but draped in the mottled gray, brown, red, and tan trappings of a wild bird.

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

Kinglets are decidedly tiny birds. At only three inches long from tip of beak to tip of tail, most of their bulk is made up of near weightless feathers. When placed on a scale, they weigh in at just four to eight grams—the weight of just two pennies.

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

While we may struggle to see a red fox year-round, their smell this time of year provides a big clue to their whereabouts.

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

Light is used as the energy source for plants to put together carbon dioxide and water into simple and complex carbohydrates like sugars (food now), starches (food later), and cellulose (which serve as building materials). And the byproduct of all this labor is oxygen.

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

Maine has only three true hibernators: groundhogs, little brown bats, and jumping meadow mice. While black bears do hunker down in order to conserve energy for the winter, they aren’t technically hibernators, but rather go into a similar process called torpor. Knowing that black bears do wake up occasionally during the winter makes it seem a bit more understandable that females can give birth during this time of year.

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

When liquid water evaporates or solid ice sublimates, it transform into the gas we know as water vapor. In the case of snow formation, the water vapor becomes super chilled far below the freezing point of water, so when it comes into contact with dust, pollen, or smoke, that water vapor instantly forms a microscopic crystal of ice in a process called deposition.

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

Bigger than a sparrow, smaller than a cardinal, and draped in buff yellows, browns and grays, cedar waxwings are most distinguishable by the size of their flocks to the unaided eye. Throughout the year, I tend to find cedar waxwing flocks numbering around a dozen or so individuals, though those flocks can contain 100 or more individuals this time of year.

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

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