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Winding Pathways encourages you to create a wonderous yard, whether that yard is an expansive acreage, a suburban lot or a condominium balcony. Go outside and play!
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The Great Backyard Bird Count
“Anyone in the world can count birds at any location for at least 15 minutes on one or more days of the count and enter their sightings at The Audubon Society Backyard Bird Count. The information gathered by tens of thousands of volunteers helps track changes in bird populations on a massive scale. The GBBC is a joint project of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and the National Audubon Society with partner Bird Studies Canada.
Bird watchers fell in love with the magnificent Snowy Owl during the last count when the birds were reported in unprecedented numbers across southeastern Canada, the Great Lakes states, the Northeast, and down the Atlantic Coast. Expect Snowy Owls to show up in higher numbers during this year’s GBBC, too.
Pity the Poor Pocket Gopher
Relatively warm snow free winters make life easier for most species of wildlife. The pocket gopher is an exception. It prefers deep snow. During warm months this common animal tunnels through the soil seeking roots that form the bulk of its diet. Cold weather makes the ground as hard as armor plate. Since tunneling in frozen dirt is nearly impossible a hungry gopher must emerge above ground to find food.
Hope – A Big Deal Thing
“Hope” is like “Why”.
Jenion’s Blog, “Don’t Ask Me Why”, really stuck with me – How we use words to either propel ourselves forward or hold ourselves back.
Her take was that “Why” – that annoying three year old habit of asking – is too often used to be an excuse for perceived injustices or not doing something. We revert to “three-year-oldism” as adults: “Why me?” “Why did this have to happen?”
Then, after Sunday’s service and sermon connecting Hope with Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, I looked at “Hope.”
Wood Heat
Few cold winter evening experiences are as pleasant as sitting before the woodstove soaking up the warmth of a fire. That heat is essentially solar energy captured by the tree through photosynthesis on past summer days and released by fire in the dead of winter.
Bittersweet
A showy winter sight is deep orange to scarlet bittersweet berries dusted by snow. Often they are picked for holiday decorations.
Parts of North America are home to two wild bittersweets. One is a beautiful native that’s in rapid decline. The other is a fast spreading exotic that overwhelms even large trees.
“Shed” Your Mid-winter Blues!
Deer thrive in suburban and urban areas throughout the country. Although does are often seen, sighting antlered bucks is rare. Even massive ones with wide spreading antlers have the uncanny ability to stay out of sight in the midst of the city.
The best evidence of big bucks is a shed antler. Male deer begin growing them in early spring. By September they are full size and are used through the fall for sparring with other males and to bang against trees. Often the mere size of a buck’s antlers intimidates smaller rivals.
Surviving the Deep Freeze
Birds have several adaptations that enable them to function in extreme cold. Perhaps most important is being clothed in highly efficient insulators – feathers. Even in our era of modern high tech insulation, goose down quilts and coats are warmer than any synthetic insulation, so the hundreds of feathers covering small birds keep them warm.
Bald Eagles Overhead
Winter is the most likely season to spot an eagle. During summer months some nest in warm states but more fly north to raise their young along remote lakes and streams in Minnesota, upper New England and Canada. When those northern lakes ice over in late fall eagles gradually move south until they find open water and plenty of fish. Dams create turbulence and factories sometimes discharge warm water that keep water open in otherwise frozen rivers. Eagles love these places and concentrate there, often even in the downtown of large cities.
For the Love of Backyard Chickens
Chickens are colorful and entertaining transformers of kitchen scraps and garden waste into delicious organic food. What could be better than a small flock? Six hens will do these wonderful things:
Lay three or four fresh and delicious eggs every day.
Quickly repurpose food scraps and weeds into eggs.
Provide a wonderful opportunity for children to learn responsibility by caring for chicken. And they’ll learn where food really comes from.
Add color and life to the back yard.
HUGE BUCKS IN CITY
Sometimes an area’s largest bucks reside in towns for a number of reasons. Often cities have nutritious food interspersed with woods and ravines that provide secluded hiding places.
CHRISTMAS TREES IN A NUT SHELL
As the Christmas Tree fashions wax and wane, we see an upsurge in families eagerly venturing out to tree farms to select and cut a real tree and participate in “value added” activities at tree farms. Many species of evergreens are used for Christmas trees. Learn where the trees originate.
Binoculars Handy Around the House and are Great Gifts
Few household items are as handy as a pair of binoculars. Sure, they are great for getting a close look at birds visiting the feeder, but they are also helpful to:
view the roof for loose shingles.
observe from a distance butterflies, bees and other insects.
bring distant worlds into view from the backyard.
make viewing ball games, concerts and large stage shows more intimate.
Magical First Snow Adventures*
An extraordinary “musher”, a hardy couple, and a sweet “babo” all take in the first snow of the season.
The Gift of Winter Reading
New Bo Books is a local Cedar Rapids, IA, bookstore affiliated with Prairie Lights Books in Iowa City, Iowa. Check out their wide array of current adult topics and children’s classics for this Holiday Season.
Indian Creek Nature Center in SE Cedar Rapids, IA, features a variety of books for children and adults. Certain general adult topic books are on sale for 20% off until gone. They also carry great nature/science kits for kids (Animal Tracks, Science on a Nature Walk, Going Green). New this year are all natural with bark still on building block sets and origami projects and books.
JUNCOS
Juncos are snow birds who overwinter in “balmy” Iowa.
Obsidian or Slag – What Does It Matter?
Obsidian and glass slag are so similar that it’s often difficult the tell the difference. Unscrupulous ebay sellers have taken advantage of this and have sold the artificial form as the real thing.