This winter the most numerous bird species hanging around our area is the Mountain Chickadee. They appear to make up the core of mixed flocks roaming the neighborhood and slightly outnumber the Red-Breasted Nuthatches and Black-Capped Chickadees. These guys have a wonderful feisty-spunky-gritty- character that makes them a real treat to have around on a winters day. As spring arrives they will move back up into the hills but for now we are thoroughly enjoying having the around.
We have been lucky to have two and sometimes even three Brown Creepers hanging around the area this winter. They have been the first to arrive to the trees in the morning steadily working their way up and down the bark of the spruce and pines on their daily quest for sustenance. Tiny birds weighing on average seven grams and at most fine inches in length they are well camouflaged yet their presence looms large and is a welcome sight in the quiet of the winter forest.
As the sun rises on a new blanket of snow questions arise.
Who- a rabbit and someone ins search of a rabbit?
What- did the rabbit escape, the chaser give up?
When- when eyes were closed and sleeping sound?
Where- At least one answer to the story at hand.
A nice story with so many possibilities written in a language all can understand.
You can actually feel it now.
The sun is returning to the winter sky and looking into straight into that wonderful ball of light warms the bones regardless of what the thermometer reads.
Hello sun.
A nice morning treat was a visit by a Goldfinch this week. Not a regular in the winter here by any means. This guy flew in and stayed just the morning before moving along on his way. Wherever that might have been. A splash of color on a overcast February morning.
Eating berries in a single gulp is as easy as one, two, three. If of course your a Cedar Waxwing.
Pick, flip, swallow and repeat.
Denver, CO.
For the next couple of weeks we will be posting some of our favorite posts from the past as we take a small respite from the digital world.
Seeing a Great Blue Heron take flight on a cold snowy day is a sure way to cure those mid-winter blues. Clear Creek in Denver, CO.
For the next couple of weeks we will be posting some of our favorite posts from the past as we take a small respite from the digital world.
A bighorn Ram moseying along find that place where the sun is out, the grass is long and the snow is not so deep.
Standing behind the steam with sun above color filled the landscape.
With rusty orange…
and sometimes blue…
and often all of that and more with steam and sun in front and color all around.
A recent report published in Science Daily describes the results of a recent research study published in the journal Current Biology supporting the hypothesis that when under attack from insect herbivores plants indeed communicate with each other.1
No, they don’t scream, but use chemicals called Volatile Organic Compounds and release them into the atmosphere and are detected by their neighbors.
One of the major findings from the study is that when plants are under attack the compounds released become more similar between species suggesting a type of cross species communication.
The Author of the study Andre Kessler describes the results of the study as follows:
“What we very often see when plants get attacked by pathogens or herbivores is, they change their metabolism,” Kessler said. “But it’s not a random change — in fact, those chemical and metabolic changes are also helping them cope with those attackers. It’s very much like our immune system: though plants don’t have antibodies like we have, they can fight back with pretty nasty chemistry.” 2
Interesting stuff.
The article in Science Daily is an easy read and a little splash of color to beat back a dull January day might be just what the doctor ordered.
Courtesy of none other than….Plants!
References:
1. Aino Kalske, Kaori Shiojiri, Akane Uesugi, Yuzu Sakata, Kimberly Morrell, André Kessler. Insect Herbivory Selects for Volatile-Mediated Plant-Plant Communication. Current Biology, 2019; 29 (18): 3128 DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2019.08.011
2.Cornell University. “Plants alert neighbors to threats using common ‘language’.” ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 3 October 2019. .
nature has no boss 
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