Week of February 9, 2025 – February 15, 2025
by Elizabeth Suzedell, Environmental Educator
With frigid temperatures, frozen lakes, and very little bare ground, it seems like we’re finally having a real winter again in Central New York! I’m glad that the weather has been more normal, but as always in February, I really miss the warmth and liveliness of summer. However, on a recent winter hike around The Woods, I was reminded that the cold doesn’t mean that things aren’t alive.
I started my walk along the Griffiths Trail, which is home to an old beaver meadow ecosystem. The temperature was around 15°F, skies were overcast, and the birch trees were dropping seeds in the light breeze. Old weeds were providing some structure amongst the snow, and I saw that a few of the golden rods had “ball galls.” Last spring, the goldenrod gall fly laid its eggs in the stem, which stimulated the plant to grow a big protective ball around the larvae. They overwinter in the gall until the next spring, when they will emerge as adults. Sometimes, chickadees will eat the larvae for some extra fall and winter food. I could hear a flock of them moving through the nearby trees while doing their alarm call, “chick-a-dee-dee-dee.”
When I crossed onto the Boundary Trail, I noticed that the winter forest is still full of color. A darker shade of green provided cover in the hemlock grove. Closer to the ground, there were Christmas ferns just poking above the snow and green algae near the bases of trees. Moss provided a fuzzy texture to the backside of a maple, and on the other side, there was a vibrant yellow, crusty lichen. The persistent leaves on the beeches added a wash of orange to the woods, and when a male cardinal landed on one, it stuck out as a beacon of red.
As I approached the Valley Trail, I found some mammal evidence. I knew that mice were around, because tiny prints with a long tail in the middle were running short distances between the trees. In the hills next to me, it looked like there were some deer highways. Baltimore Brook was mostly frozen over once I got the upstream bridge, but I could still see and hear the quiet flow of water underneath. I noticed a track along the ice, so I went down to the shore to investigate. The bounding gait and medium size was just right for a mink! They must still be finding fish to eat in the stream, despite the cold.
What are some of the signs of life you’ve observed this winter?