If you find clumps of empty burdock fruits lying on top of the snow, there may well be wild turkeys in the area. During the winter, especially when the snow pack is deep, wild turkeys feed on vegetation poking up above the surface of the snow, such as burdock seeds. There are tell-tail signs when turkeys have been eating burdock, even if no tracks are evident, because of the way in which they consume the seeds. Turkeys somehow pluck the burdock fruits off and then turn them inside-out, exposing the seeds which they then eat. Typically several of these empty fruits will be “velcroed” together, leaving small bunches of them scattered over the snow.
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March 6, 2013 | Categories: Animal Signs, Bird Diets, Birds, Gallinaceous Birds, March, Seed Dispersal, Wild Turkey | Tags: Meleagris gallopavo | 1 Comment »
If you’re looking for a present for someone that will be used year round, year after year, Naturally Curious may just fit the bill. A relative, a friend, your child’s school teacher – it’s the gift that keeps on giving to both young and old!
One reader wrote, “This is a unique book as far as I know. I have several naturalists’ books covering Vermont and the Northeast, and have seen nothing of this breadth, covered to this depth. So much interesting information about birds, amphibians, mammals, insects, plants. This would be useful to those in the mid-Atlantic, New York, and even wider geographic regions. The author gives a month-by-month look at what’s going on in the natural world, and so much of the information would simply be moved forward or back a month in other regions, but would still be relevant because of the wide overlap of species. Very readable. Couldn’t put it down. I consider myself pretty knowledgeable about the natural world, but there was much that was new to me in this book. I would have loved to have this to use as a text when I was teaching. Suitable for a wide range of ages.”
In a recent email to me a parent wrote, “Naturally Curious is our five year old’s unqualified f-a-v-o-r-I-t-e book. He spends hours regularly returning to it to study it’s vivid pictures and have us read to him about all the different creatures. It is a ‘must have’ for any family with children living in New England…or for anyone that simply shares a love of the outdoors.”
I am a firm believer in fostering a love of nature in young children – the younger the better — but I admit that when I wrote Naturally Curious, I was writing it with adults in mind. It delights me no end to know that children don’t even need a grown-up middleman to enjoy it!
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November 23, 2012 | Categories: Plants, Insects, Amphibians, Reptiles, Birds, Mammals, A Closer Look at New England, March, Animal Signs, April, Gastropods, June, Fungus, Arachnids, July, August, September, October, Crustaceans, November, December, Animal Tracks, January, Bird Songs, February, Spring Wildflowers, Trees and Shrubs, Raptors, Non-flowering plants, Bird Nests, Predator-Prey, Butterflies, Flowering Plants, turtles, Frogs, Dragonflies, Senses, Moths, Carnivorous Plants, Toads, Beetles, Hymenoptera, Arthropods, Millipedes, Flies, Snails, Slugs, Odonata, Animal Adaptations, Pollination, Decomposition, Lepidoptera, Metamorphosis, Bugs, Scat, Insect Signs, Larvae, Beavers, Poisonous Plants, Mutualism, Snakes, Adaptations, camouflage, Parasitic Plants, Damselflies, Spores, Waterfowl, Conifers, Animal Architecture, Hornets, Seeds, Winter Adaptations, Rodents, Lichens, Fruits, Tracks, Animal Communication, Tree Identification, Woodpeckers, Deciduous Trees, Foxes, Porcupines, Birds of Prey, Bark, Tree Buds, Trees, Woody Plants, Weasel Family, Courtship, Owls, Nocturnal Animals, Hibernation, Black Bears, Scent Marking, Feathers, Insects Active in Winter, Molts, Grasshoppers, Diets, Sexual Dimorphism, Migration, Shrubs, Honeybees, Insect Eggs, Fishers, Falcons, Ephemerals, Young Animals, Warblers, Plumage, Red Foxes, Caterpillars, Leaves, Vernal Pools, Lady's Slippers, Invertebrates, Bumblebees, Animal Diets, Nests, Micorrhiza, Egg laying, Ants, Seed Dispersal, Fledging, Moose, Pupae, Bogs, Anti-predatory Device, Wading Birds, Wasps, Ducks, Food Chain, Muskrats, Herbivores, Carnivores, Bats, Herons, Diptera, Cervids, Deer, Defense Mechanisms, Mimicry, Cocoons, Chrysalises, Earwigs, Fledglings, Mushrooms, Parasites, Galls, Animal Eyes, Shorebirds, Squirrels, Striped Skunks, Yellowjackets, Vertebrates, Tree Flowers, Spiders, Crickets, Passerines, Gray Foxes, Vines, Red Squirrel, Evergreen Plants, Orchids, North American River Otter, Snowfleas, Social Insects, Flying Squirrels, Gills, White-tailed Deer, Bird Diets, Omnivores | Tags: Naturally Curious, Naturally Curious by Mary Holland, Christmas Gifts | 2 Comments »
Common Juniper (Juniperus communis) is one of the few evergreen shrubs in New England and has one of the largest ranges of any woody plant. You often find it in old pastures and meadows, where its sharp needles protect it from most herbivores. It is a member of the Pine family, and even though its fruits look like berries, structurally they are cones (with fleshy scales). Whereas most of the cone-bearing members of the Pine family disperse their seeds in the wind, Common Juniper uses birds and mammals to do this deed. Cedar waxwings, evening grosbeaks and purple finches consume quantities of juniper fruit, and many other songbirds are frequent visitors. White-footed mice and white-tailed deer occasionally eat the fruit as well. While not aiding the dispersal of seeds, humans do use the fruit to flavor gin.
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October 11, 2012 | Categories: Adaptations, Animal Diets, Conifers, Fruits, Herbivores, October, Plants, Seed Dispersal, Shrubs, Trees and Shrubs | Tags: Cedar Waxwing, Common Juniper, Cupressaceae, Evening Grosbeak, Gin, Juniperus communis, Pinales, Pine Family, Purple Finch, White-footed Mice, white-tailed deer | 1 Comment »
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Bloodroot seeds, as well as the seeds of as many as 5% of flowering plants, have a fatty white appendage called an elaiosome attached to them which ants are very fond of. This adaptation benefits both the ants as well as the plant. The ants collect the seeds and take them down into their tunnels where they feed the elaiosomes to their larvae. The actual seeds are discarded underground, often in with ant compost, where their chances of germinating are enhanced. The dispersal of seeds by ants is referred to as myrmecochory. As the photographs indicate, ants don’t always wait until the seeds have dropped out of the seed pod to collect them.
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May 29, 2012 | Categories: Adaptations, Animal Diets, Ants, Flowering Plants, Insect Signs, Insects, Invertebrates, May, Plants, Seed Dispersal, Seeds, Spring Wildflowers | Tags: Ants, Bloodroot, Elaiosome, Myrmecochory, Sanguinarea canadensis, Seed Dispersal | Leave A Comment »
If you find clumps of empty burdock fruits lying on top of the snow, there may well be wild turkeys in the area. During the winter, especially when the snow pack is deep, wild turkeys feed on vegetation poking up above the surface of the snow, such as burdock seeds. There are tell-tail signs when turkeys have been eating burdock, even if no tracks are evident, because of the way in which they consume the seeds. Turkeys somehow pluck the burdock fruits off and then turn them inside-out, exposing the seeds which they then eat. Typically several of these empty fruits will be “velcroed” together, leaving small bunches of them scattered over the snow. 
Common Juniper (Juniperus communis) is one of the few evergreen shrubs in New England and has one of the largest ranges of any woody plant. You often find it in old pastures and meadows, where its sharp needles protect it from most herbivores. It is a member of the Pine family, and even though its fruits look like berries, structurally they are cones (with fleshy scales). Whereas most of the cone-bearing members of the Pine family disperse their seeds in the wind, Common Juniper uses birds and mammals to do this deed. Cedar waxwings, evening grosbeaks and purple finches consume quantities of juniper fruit, and many other songbirds are frequent visitors. White-footed mice and white-tailed deer occasionally eat the fruit as well. While not aiding the dispersal of seeds, humans do use the fruit to flavor gin.
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