It was interesting to me to learn how important it is for animals to have a successful (meaning: lots of available food) fall season. Whether they hide food in trees and rocks like squirrels, or save it in their own fat stores, there's just not much else to eat in wintertime. Barbara Kingsolver wrote a great book called "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle" about her year of living off only what she could grow or raise, and her stories about starting in early spring, before their garden produced much, really brought home to me how crucial our ability to store calories is.
Excellent article- Beech trees add so much to an otherwise barren winter forest scape. We have only a few in our woods and would like to encourage more. Did not know they spread by their roots. I’ve read that there were extensive forests of them before deforestation occurred.
I agree - they're one of my favorite trees! (it's hard to pick just one) We have a ton of them on our property. I plan on doing an issue before too long on old growth forests - I'll try to remember to look into which tree species were prolific then. Thanks for the kind words!
I love all the research you put into these! Now i will look up the article about the birch/deer connection. Very cool! I love all the links you put in. I didn't know about the 2019 freeze knocking back some hemlock wooly adelgids. yay! Here in FL I'm dealing with an invasive tree frog...before the frost I picked up as much cover as I could (I hated doing this because I love to leave winter cover for the natives, but). so I'm hoping it knocked a few out. But, like you say, those that survive, might thrive!! ugh. Cuban tree frogs. I love frogs but these guys I do not love. They compete with the native tree frogs, and eat the native lizards.
Thanks for your kind words! I'm glad you're enjoying the newsletter! I'm thinking of doing an issue on invasive species -- I feel guilty sometimes, killing the Joros, because they're just animals too and they didn't ask to be carted halfway around the world in an Amazon container (allegedly), but when I hear they're taking out the writing spiders, well, that's just a bridge too far. (Scientists aren't yet sure they're crowding out the writing spiders, but I sure would hate to see that population diminish). I wonder about invasives - what makes a plant/animal invasive? Surely, before extended human interference, birds probably pooped out seeds in new places and spiderlings traveled on the wind to new territory, right? Is the problem the large leaps they make with human help? For instance, how did your Cuban tree frogs get to Florida, and could it have happened naturally somehow? Anyway, food for thought -- thank you!
Wow - what an interesting insect! It's a scrappy little thing - living above tree line, surviving being frozen solid, and even vomiting as a defense mechanism. I love that there are so many variations of living things on this planet, and each one has a group of people dedicated to spending a good portion of their time studying all their intricate details. Thanks for sharing!
I was recently doing lots of pondering about wildlife survival here in Wisconsin when the temp was minus 15 F but with windchill minus 37 F
It was interesting to me to learn how important it is for animals to have a successful (meaning: lots of available food) fall season. Whether they hide food in trees and rocks like squirrels, or save it in their own fat stores, there's just not much else to eat in wintertime. Barbara Kingsolver wrote a great book called "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle" about her year of living off only what she could grow or raise, and her stories about starting in early spring, before their garden produced much, really brought home to me how crucial our ability to store calories is.
I don't know that there's a better opportunity to grasp how interconnected we are with nature, than to depend on it in such a personal way.
Excellent article- Beech trees add so much to an otherwise barren winter forest scape. We have only a few in our woods and would like to encourage more. Did not know they spread by their roots. I’ve read that there were extensive forests of them before deforestation occurred.
I agree - they're one of my favorite trees! (it's hard to pick just one) We have a ton of them on our property. I plan on doing an issue before too long on old growth forests - I'll try to remember to look into which tree species were prolific then. Thanks for the kind words!
I love all the research you put into these! Now i will look up the article about the birch/deer connection. Very cool! I love all the links you put in. I didn't know about the 2019 freeze knocking back some hemlock wooly adelgids. yay! Here in FL I'm dealing with an invasive tree frog...before the frost I picked up as much cover as I could (I hated doing this because I love to leave winter cover for the natives, but). so I'm hoping it knocked a few out. But, like you say, those that survive, might thrive!! ugh. Cuban tree frogs. I love frogs but these guys I do not love. They compete with the native tree frogs, and eat the native lizards.
Thanks for your kind words! I'm glad you're enjoying the newsletter! I'm thinking of doing an issue on invasive species -- I feel guilty sometimes, killing the Joros, because they're just animals too and they didn't ask to be carted halfway around the world in an Amazon container (allegedly), but when I hear they're taking out the writing spiders, well, that's just a bridge too far. (Scientists aren't yet sure they're crowding out the writing spiders, but I sure would hate to see that population diminish). I wonder about invasives - what makes a plant/animal invasive? Surely, before extended human interference, birds probably pooped out seeds in new places and spiderlings traveled on the wind to new territory, right? Is the problem the large leaps they make with human help? For instance, how did your Cuban tree frogs get to Florida, and could it have happened naturally somehow? Anyway, food for thought -- thank you!
I loved the alligators in ice. That's so fascinating. On the subject of cold, New Zealand has the world's largest insect capable of being frozen solid. https://www.latitudemagazine.co.nz/frozen-in-time-new-zealand-mountain-stone-weta
Wow - what an interesting insect! It's a scrappy little thing - living above tree line, surviving being frozen solid, and even vomiting as a defense mechanism. I love that there are so many variations of living things on this planet, and each one has a group of people dedicated to spending a good portion of their time studying all their intricate details. Thanks for sharing!