Nature Activities

Tracks are often well defined in shallow snow, so after examining your own tracks look for those made by other animals that are winter-active in your area. You may only find prints left by neighborhood dogs and cats, but check for those made by birds and, in areas that support these animals, those left by squirrels, rabbits, raccoons, and deer, to mention just a few.

Follow any tracks you come across, and try to piece together something about the animal’s activities. You may find evidence of a wild chase, or even a kill, or tracks that lead from a food source to an animal’s den.

Animals that remain active during the colder months basically like to eat the same types of food that are available to them at other times. There are usually far fewer choices, however, and heavy snow-cover makes for difficulties. Some animals are capable of storing fat, which not only sustains them during lean times but keeps them warmer. Other animals continue to need to eat daily (deer and rabbits, for instance, eat all the time!), and where they once ate the fresh leaves of trees and shrubs, they turn to nibbling on buds and soft twigs.

Be on the lookout for the signs left behind by animals that have been foraging for food. Examine the bark torn from tree trunks and branches, as it offers some clues to the presence of animals. (This can be done year-round, of course.) Wild cats, like their domestic counterparts, leave shredded bark on trees, a result of sharpening their claws. Porcupines nibble on patches of bark high up in trees, small toothmarks may even be evident. Freshly nipped buds may mean that deer have feasted recently. You may also come across blood-stained snow, for carnivores need to kill every so often so they can eat to survive.

Many general field guides include diagrams of tracks along with their descriptions of animals.

[Image: Courtesy of Flickr user siskokid]

Did you know that ten inches of snow are roughly equal to one inch or rain? You can measure the amount of snowfall with a homemade gauge made from any container that you can mark off in inches or centimeters. A simple but effective gauge can be made from the bottom half of a clear plastic soda bottle, marked with an indelible laundry marker on the outside. Although less reliable because of the way snow drifts, you can also measure snowfall with a yardstick.

Put several gauges outdoors – – near a tree, out in the open, on your front steps — and see if they all measure the same. Are you surprised?

And only the sky knows for sure . . .

Because winter sports are big business, and inadequate snowfall might be the ruin of an area that attracts skiers and other snow enthusiasts, man-made snow is commonly made to get the season off to a good start. (It is sometimes made throughout the entire winter.)

Most machine-made snow, as it’s called, is made when compressed air and compressed water are combined to create a very dry ice crystal. This “snow” is blown and pushed and packed into place from early November until mid-March at some locations. The machine-made snow is very durable, and while it cannot be made unless the air temperature is at freezing or below, an unexpected rain will not melt it, but instead will soak right down through it.

Do you think you can feel the difference between real and machine-made snow? Do you think that machine-made snow is cold?

[Image: Courtesy of Flickr user Chuck_893]

The Inuit language has more than 50 words for snow, from ganik (means: snow that is still falling) to pukaq (means: crusty snow) and masak (means: mushy snow).

When the temperature at cloud level is at freezing or below, and the moisture-filled clouds can hold back no longer, be on the lookout for snow.

If the air close to the ground is warm enough, the precipitation that started out as snow may turn to rain by the time you see it falling. (snow, however, is not frozen rain, which is properly known as sleet.) The same principle determines whether the snow will be “wet” (good for making snowballs and snowpeople) or “dry” (light and flaky). “Wet” snow forms when slightly warmer temperatures cause the falling flakes to bunch together in clumps; “dry” snow forms when the air temperature is very low (cold), and the resulting flakes are smaller and harder.

About Snowflakes

All snowflakes are six-sided crystals of ice, forming in one of seven basic shapes. It is said that no two snowflakes are alike. Could that be? Well, considering the average snowflake is made up of 10 to the 18th molecules of water (that’s 10 x 10 x 10, 18 times!), the number of different combinations those molecules can make is mind-staggering.

In 1880, Wilson Bentley of Vermont began a study of snowflakes that occupied him for nearly fifty years. He photographed thousands of snowflakes, giving him the nickname — you guessed it – – Snowflake Bentley. Snowflakes can be described by their geometric shapes, or variations of them, such as prismatic column, hexagonal plate, cup, hexagonal column, needle, flat plate, and dendrite.

Think of all the shapes that occur in an ordinary snowfall, the consider the fact that the greatest single day snowfall was recorded in Silver Lake, Colorado in April, 1921. An astounding 75.8 inches fell during those twenty-four hours!

Catch Some Snowflakes

Because snowflakes melt so quickly when they land on a warm surface, catching them requires some planning. Chill a dark sheet of construction paper outdoors or in the freezer. Examine single flakes with a magnifying glass as they land on the paper (before they melt!).

Permanent impressions of snowflakes can be made by catching falling flakes on a chilled pan of glass which has been sprayed with chilled hair spray or artist’s fixative. (Both the glass and the spray can be stored in the freezer to await use.) Keeping the prepared glass as cold as possible, take it outdoors and allow some flakes to settle on it. When you have collected enough, take the glass indoors and let it dry at room temperature for about 15 minutes. You’ll have a permanent record of some of nature’s most amazing designs!

[Image: Courtesy of Flickr user carolyn_in_oregon]

We humans have come up with some ingenious ways of dealing with the cold, often by changing our surroundings to suit us rather than adapting to the environment as most other animals do. While we have borrowed many ideas from nature, we have gone one step farther in many cases.

We insulate our homes, just like squirrels do their nests, but we also heat them artificially. Place thermometers both inside and out to see what a difference this makes.

We also dress for the weather, since we have lost much of the fur that once covered our bodies, in order to be active year-round. Think of the birds fluffing up their down feathers when you slip on your down jacket!

Step outside for a minute on a chilly day with little on, and then bundle up and go back outside. You’re more comfortable, aren’t you? You’ll also notice that you don’t feel quite as cold if you are wearing a hat. It’s a fact that you lose a lot of body heat right out the top of your head! So keep it covered on a cold day. If you dress in layers, you can add or shed clothing as the temperature climbs or dips.

The Ways Animals Keep Warm

You may wonder how animals stay warm without the benefits of clothing and heated homes. Animals have some creative solutions for keeping warm, many of which people have borrowed!

Many animals migrate to warmer areas (just as older people may choose to spend the winter in Florida!). Others hibernate or are simply dormant, having created insulated havens much like your own house.

Some animals remain active even in very cold regions, and those are the ones you can look for during winter. Watch how the birds at your feeder fluff up their feathers, trapping body heat in their soft downy feathers. Stroke the thickened fur of a dog or horse, and you’ll see these animals also “wear more clothing” in winter! And if you’ve found evidence of mice in your house, you can see how some creatures share the shelters we have built for ourselves, as well.

How Plants Withstand Cold

Just like animals, plants have ways to deal with the cold and frozen precipitation that envelop them during the frigid Northern Wisconsin winter months.

A lot of them may look dead, but only the annual plants have actually died. These are the low-growing plants that you can pull up easily, roots and all. They die after producing and scattering their seeds. Some plants take two years before their seeds mature, and these are known as biennials.

Many plants live for more than two years. These are the perennials. Trees are the most visible members of this group. Because little moisture is available to them (it’s frozen!), these plants halt their growth, and shed the leaves that normally transpire a lot of water. At least the broad-leaved trees and bushes do this. Evergreens can keep their leaves (or needles as we call them), because they have a protective waxy coating. It’s a bit like the hand lotion you use to protect your hands in winter!

Some plants are sensitive to changes in temperature. Have you ever noticed how rhododendron leaves curl up tightly (they almost look like cigars!) when it’s very cold outside? They relax and unfurl when it’s warmer.

[Image: Courtesy of Mike Crowley; available for sale at his website Life in the Northwoods]

Start by setting aside a spot to house and show off your nature treasures and projects. This needn’t be elaborate. While a table that can remain set up with your collections would be nice, a windowsill can easily be turned into an ever-changing exhibit space. A bulletin board is ideal for tacking up pictures and information, but the refrigerator works just as well with a good supply of strong magnets. Explore the possibilities of using pegboard or a free-standing oversized box to tape things on, or even a piece of string stretched taut from which items can be hung.

It’s fun to collect things that you find when you are out on walks, and, within the bounds of nature etiquette (only take what you really need, and leave plenty of flowers to reseed themselves, et cetera), you can bring home some of what you find.

You may discover that you have to design some creative storage solutions for everything you save! And don’t be quick to throw things away. . .

There is plenty of free stuff for the taking that can make your nature studies easy on your piggy-bank. Save paper and plastic goods (especially the boxes and containers that food, clothing, and shoes come wrapped in), and turn them into storage and display units. Look through the mail for pictures you can cut out.

Consider buying the ends of newsprint rolls which newspapers sell for only a few dollars. The width and continuous length are perfect for murals. (Used, continuous, computer print-out paper also works well.) This paper can also be shredded as bedding for small animals.

Be on the lookout for these and other items that can be used and reused. Recycling begins at home!

• Shoe boxes
• Berry boxes and baskets
• Plastic bags
• Jars, large and small
• Cardboard boxes of various sizes
• Catalogues and magazines
• Film canisters
• Styrofoam butcher’s trays
• Egg cartons
• Coffee cans
• Deli containers
• Plastic soda bottles
• Yogurt and cottage cheese containers
• Margarine tubs

Design Some Display and Storage Boxes

With a little imagination and tape and glue, you can turn all sorts of ordinary boxes into display cases and storage bins. Look around for containers that can be sectioned off to hold small items (such as rocks and insects); larger boxes can serve as filing cabinets or even temporary cages for small animals. Use interlocking strips of cardboard to divide the boxes into smaller specimen sections, or just mark the boxes with ruled lines if your collections will be glued in place. Save yogurt or sour cream containers for protecting individual specimens, and for planting seedlings and windowsill gardens.

[Image: Courtesy of Mike Crowley; available for sale at his website Life in the Northwoods]