A Bird? An Animal? Or Skunk Cabbage?

Why should children learn to identify skunk cabbage? If you take a young person on a walk while there is still ice coating streams and trees waiting for their tender buds and brown of last years fallen  leaves , the pointed maroon hoods poking through the frozen ground around a bog tell you and your young  friend that  Nature is  getting ready for the changing season from winter to spring. As much fun as sledding and snowballs can be there is an excitement to see this new growth; so tender yet capable of poking through the frozen ground. Just how the skunk cabbage manages this is an amazing story about how it produces heat as it grows. Roger Knutson discovered that the pointed, somewhat curved leaf breaking through the icy ground produces a warmth just like birds and animals. Look carefully at the spiraled hood and you will see a pool of melting ice. The first bees and insects of warmer weather may be enjoying this unique warmth too. The Northeast Native Americans associated this rebirth in February or March, before any other plants poked through the ice and snow, as the cycle of life.

Bring Children Back To Nature Flower By Flower

Bring children back to nature: flower by flower; bird by bird, tree hallow by tree hallow. Curious By Nature  will be explore wildflowers, birds, and many other unique natural wonders one by one.  Just as knowing the name of a person connects you to that person, a child who  knows the name of a wildflower or bird will appreciate its importance and want to preserve it. To begin this adventure,  I will follow Frederic William Stack's book, Wildflowers Every Child Should Know published by Doubleday, Page & Company in 1909. Stack organizes his book according to color. I would like to explore each species by season. So check back for the first amazing wildflower that every child will remember by its smell, if  not its other characteristics. That's right. It is one of earliest plants to appear in New England.  By January or February you should be able to find this  Skunk Cabbage popping up in a still very cold bog along the side of a country road.  I'll be back with my own photo and more interesting facts about this member of the lilly family. Join me for this new adventure, flower by flower, bird by bird.

Squirrel Cleanliness After Eating An Acorn

Again, I witnessed,  for  an incredibly quick moment, the actions of a gray squirrel after he finished his acorn. He hastily swatted his pouches with both paws to clean the leftover acorn from his face. This glimpse reminded me of any small child who wipes his sleeve across his mouth in a gallant gesture to clean his face.

In the picture above his Eastern Gray Squirrel is braced against the back of a tree while sitting on a broken branch about 15 feet above the ground. 
In the picture below, he has finished his acorn. Sat with the tips of his paws forming a circle. Then once, then twice, he brushed his pouches to clean himself. 

Chipmunks And Spring

Here in New England spotting the a harbinger of Spring is only akin to seeing the first snowflake in Fall.  Last week I caught a robin eating the holly berries. Phil-that's Punxtwany Phil, of course, may be the most famous weather animal/ weather fortuneteller, but  he has a tinier cousin, the chipmunk,  who does not get as much press, but only shows himself when the last days of February begin to warm up enough to remind us that there is  green under that white blanket.
Now that first thing you must know, is that little fellow is not really hibernating. Well, he does sleep. But unlike the true hibernators, he does not store up an extra supply of body fat.  He wakes up to eat some the seeds, berries, nuts, and grains  he gathered in his pouches and  brought back to his burrow. Then he falls back to sleep. Scientists call this a torpor.  Does this sound like something you would like to try? Unlike another larger cousin, the gray squirrel, he just is not big enough to manage the snow.
 We know Aesop's fable about the grasshopper and the ant; again,  the little guy anxiously preparing for the cold ahead while the grasshopper baths in the warmth. Getting ready for winter is important to the chipmunk. Their short two to three year life, becomes shorter without a winter cache.
I began wondering about the chipmunks after I saw a few scurrying over the hardened snow.  There seems to be a fair amount of love for this little creature. Maybe we have Alvin and his friends  to thank for that. But in the real forest and farm world the chipmunk plays an important roll. Even though these speedy ground squirrels spend most of their time hidden under grass or in stone walls or ducking into a  tree hallow, they are fairly easy prey for the fox, coyote, hawk, or snake looking for supper. They also raise the farmer's angst when they eat the newly planted seeds, but get an appreciative nod when they munch on insects destroying the crops.
Maybe with a little luck or quick flash someone has snapped this cutie with his five backstripes, glossy eyes, and straight up tail as he darted across the yard or stole a seed from the bird feeder.

A Yellow-bellied Sapsucker's Reward

"Hey! it was not easy getting to these sticky, gooey insects! I want them all!

Yellow-bellied Sapsucker In Connecticut

It looks like there is another fellow besides the robin who did not want to make the  trip south last autumn. This hardy male sapsucker was pecking at his hole almost all yesterday, ignoring the cold and snow. Usually, this member of the woodpecker family prefers warmer weather-at least, above 39 degrees.

The brush-like bristles on his tongue help him lap up the  tasty sap that sticks to just as tasty insects. Hmmm!Good! But not only a delicious meal for a any hard-pecking sapsucker, but filled with amino acids and protein.

I first noticed him around 7:30 EST and continued to marvel at his tenacity that kept him pecking until late afternoon. The Smithsonian Migratory Center  points out that their bird of the month in August, 2003,  methodically drills horizontal holes around the  less than healthy tree.

Notice his ever-so-lemon chest and the red around his throat which marks him as a male and especially his verical black stripes. No other woodpecker can claim this pattern.

A Robin Wintering In Connecticut

Sometimes Nature reminds us that even the very familiar can be special.  Even though the robin is a common backyard visitor and often the  harbinger of Spring known to every child,  this  puffed-up, haughty fellow sitting in my evergreen  on this very cold February morning reminded me how Nature can turn the ordinary into the extraordinary if we are willing to take a moment to appreciate it. You can see the look in my visitor's eye. Can you hear him saying? "I know I am the most handsome..."

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Sharing The Wonder of Birds With Kids by Laura Erickson