Moose Mastication
Moose are ruminants and as such have stomachs which are highly specialized for the microbial fermentation of food that they eat. Without this adaptation, they could not digest their high fiber diet. Mastication of their food, however, is their primary method for the physical breakdown of plant material. By breaking down food into smaller pieces, the surface area increases for microbial digestion.
Moose chew their food twice and the rate at which they chew it varies. Their spring and summer diet which consists of leaves of deciduous browse, aquatic plants, etc. is more digestible than the woody browse they eat during winter due to the relatively small amount of lignin (used in the formation of cell walls) it contains. The more lignin, the more intensely the cud/bolus (food previously eaten) is chewed. The amount of chewing a regurgitated bolus receives can vary from 24 to 107 chews per minute. In the spring, when food is succulent, one study showed that moose chewed food at about 62 chews per bolus, compared with a high of 133 in winter.
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Maidenhair Spleenwort
If you are hiking along damp, shady and mossy cliffs and boulders that aren’t buried under snow yet, keep an eye out for rosettes formed by the fronds of Maidenhair Spleenwort (Asplenium trichomanes), one of several evergreen ferns. It was felt that the linear, spleen-shaped sori (clusters of spore cases) on the backs of the fertile fronds indicated that the plant could be used to treat ailments of the spleen, thus leading to its common name.
In the summer, the fertile fronds (those bearing spores) are upright while the smaller sterile fronds spread horizontally. The shiny purple-brown stem, or stipe, and the tiny oval leaflets (pinnae) that are opposite one another are key identification characteristics.
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Common Loons Lingering
Most Common Loons that breed in the Northeast spend the winter off the New England coast. The adults migrate independent of their chicks and of each other. Adults depart first, usually starting to leave in October. As mentioned, pairs leave separately, one before the other (in one study, 62% of the time the female departed first). Most juveniles remain on natal or adjacent lakes after adults have departed, often until near freeze-up, when they migrate by themselves with no direction from parents. (Their migration can take up to two months, whereas adults manage it in one or two days.)
It should be noted that not all Common Loons leave the Northeast in the winter. Loons of all ages, but primarily juveniles, are present year-round as far north as Vermont, if weather permits and open water can be found. With climate change, it may become more common to see loons on open inland lakes in the Northeast in winter. (Photo: Juvenile Common Loon photographed this week on Lake Champlain as it caught and consumed a Yellow Perch)
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Beaver Winter Food Supply
During warmer months, a Beaver’s herbivorous diet consists of aquatic plants, herbaceous flowering plants, ferns, and mushrooms as well a some woody plants . However, most of these are not available or accessible once ice has formed. Even if they were, they would not store well over the winter, under water, which is the only accessible location for Beavers in northern climates.
For their winter food supply, Beavers cut branches in the fall, drag them into the water and anchor them in the mud near their lodge, where often the top of the pile is visible above the water/ice (see photo). Until thick ice forms, Beavers continue to go ashore for food, but once they are locked under the ice, the Beavers feed from this underwater cache.
This pile is what sustains Beavers throughout the winter. The size of the cache increases as you go north. A northern cache may contain a ton or more of wood. Beavers in more moderate climates, where ice does not form, do not store food.
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Common Winterberry
Many species of Holly can be found in eastern North America – some are evergreen, some deciduous, some with red fruits, some with black fruits, some are shrubs and some are trees. There are only three native Holly shrubs in the Northeast: Common Winterberry (deciduous, red berries), Mountain Holly (deciduous, red berries, short spurs on branches) and Inkberry (evergreen, black berries).
Common Winterberry (Ilex verticillata) goes by several common names including Winter Holly, Winterberry, Black Alder, Northern Holly and Swamp Holly. Look for it in wet soil near swamps, ponds or wet woods. Its bright scarlet berries (botanically speaking, drupes) persist into winter, adding bursts of color to the relatively drab landscape. While we enjoy looking at the berries, many birds that remain here during the colder months eat them, including crows, mockingbirds, robins and waxwings.
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Woodchuck Incisors
Woodchucks are rodents and as such possess four incisors, two at the front of both their upper and lower mandibles. What makes a Woodchuck atypical is the color of these four teeth. Unlike most rodents they lack a layer of orange enamel on the outer surface of their incisors, and therefore these teeth are white.
Rodents depend on their incisors for their very existence and keeping them in good shape is imperative. Incisors continuously grow for the life of the rodent unless they are somehow injured badly enough to prevent further growth. If this happens, the incisor opposite the injured tooth, in the opposing mandible, has nothing to pair itself against, and will continue growing in a circle until it either causes the animal to starve to death due to its inability to eat, or it grows in a circular fashion through the roof of its mouth and ultimately pierces the brain of the animal (see inset).
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Muskrat Lodges
Muskrats remain active throughout the year, often seeking shelter in the winter in bank burrows, if steep banks and slow-moving water are available. If they aren’t, lodges are built, typically in the early fall, though they can be constructed at any time of year. Often a family builds several lodges within their home range.
A muskrat lodge resembles a beaver lodge, only smaller and constructed out of mud and cattails, reeds and phragmites instead of logs and sticks. It houses a pair of muskrats and often several litters. A main chamber is hollowed out, and often there are several additional rooms created for litters. Muskrats enter and exit the water through one or more plunge holes inside the lodge.
According to Mark Elbroch, naturalist extraordinaire, you can tell if a muskrat lodge is active in the winter by looking for long lines of bubbles that collect under the ice as the muskrats travel to and from their lodge. These bubbles of air are sometimes scavenged by the muskrats to extend the time they can remain under water.
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