Seasons The Greening of Maplewood
Winter 2016 Winter Wildlife Web: It Takes a Village By Ann Hutchinson, Lead Naturalist
The Web of Life encircles us all - human and wild. In Ojibwe culture people believe that we are “Anishinabe akin” or “of the earth.” As winter approaches we look to nature for inspiration and solutions for survival. One option is to migrate. Many birds fly to southern climes not just for warmth but for available food to sustain empty stomachs. Even insects such as monarchs and dragonflies migrate. Others such as chipmunks and woodchucks opt for hibernating over the long winter nights. Hibernation, unlike normal sleep, means that body temperature drops, heart rates decline, and bodies enter a deathlike state. Skunks and raccoons “snooze,” waking up on warm nights and cruising through their neighborhoods to search for food. Animals adapted for winter challenges are “active” – able to find enough food and shelter to survive. If we look carefully, we’ll find evidence of shrews, mink, and fox in the form
of foot prints, tunnels, holes, and shelters. Their stories are on the next pages. In the pond, along cattail edges and hidden under a blanket of snow, is a muskrat’s winter home. Made of cattails, sedges, grasses, and pond mud, it’s where muskrats huddle together for warm-ups in between feeding forays under the ice. Muskrats also build feeding houses and platforms called “push ups.” Interspersed throughout the marsh, these structures provide openings in dense stands of cattails, where new species of plants can gain a foothold. A cadre of animals such as geese, turtles, and herons use these places to sun, nest, and feed. Muskrats’ specialized nose valves close tightly to keep water out, and a skinny, hairless, flattened tail acts as a rudder. An ability to tolerate high levels of carbon dioxide in their blood allows them to hold their breath for up to 15 minutes under water and ice. Sometimes streams of air bubbles trapped in their fur bubble to the surface and get trapped in newly formed ice. Muskrats return to these trails to chew through ice and gulp bubbles.
Human impacts affect our wildlife neighbors, but Maplewood’s environmental policies, education, natural resources management, and operations can and do help! Reduced numbers of muskrats seems to correlate with the hybridization of the invasive narrow leaf cattail with Minnesota’s native wide leaf cattail. Maplewood addresses invasive species with help from our invasive plant patrol. A changing climate has brought more frequent and intense rain events. Extreme rainfalls negatively impact pond-dwelling animals and humans. Torrents of rain raise water levels so quickly and drastically, they act as if one is flushing a toilet, according to Wildlife Biologist John Erb of the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources. In 2010 and 2015, Maplewood strengthened its stormwater ordinance to require increased infiltration of stormwater on each site. Many City raingardens have been constructed to help reduce flooding, filter runoff, and provide habitat. Nature provides inspiration; solutions abound that can strengthen our strand in life’s delicate web.
Maplewood Helps Wildlife
Policies
Education
Natural Resources Management
Operations
Karen Schragg
Stories From Wildlife Friends A Dash of Danger I’m always hungrier in the winter, trying to keep up my energy. With my keen sense of sound, I listen and can hear a mouse. Now, just a quick dash across this hard-packed lane of black snow and I will be at the best hunting ground around. What’s that noise and light? Oh no! A large object sped past and hit me. I can’t run, my leg just won’t hold my weight. It looks like one of those humans is coming toward me. The human has a shiny badge on their chest. Does this human mean me harm? If I try hard I can make it to the bushes away from this danger. But every step is painful and standing is a struggle. Why am I not moving anymore? The human with the badge is gently placing me in a warm crate. I do not recognize this smell. But it’s warm and I am exhausted.
With a keen sense of sound, a fox can hear a mouse squeaking from as far away as the length of a football field.
Wow, what a rest. I wonder how long I was out. There are lights and more humans, but I feel better. My leg doesn’t hurt, but it does appear to be covered in some sort of mud. There is food and water. This seems like a nice place to rest and recuperate. With time to think, it seems like these humans can cause us wildlife some real harm. But they can also play an important role in keeping us safe too. Maplewood offers public safety to humans and animals through police, fire, animal control, code enforcement, and other city operations. Remember humans, when driving be aware that wildlife share the community too.
Maplewood public safety personnel brought this wounded fox to the Wildlife Rehabilitation Center.
My Fur Keeps Me Warm The air is getting crisp. But I don’t mind, my fur is getting thick. This will allow me to stay active all winter long. Even so, I have to eat all the time in order to keep up my energy and warmth, constantly replenishing the layer of insulating fat between my body and my fur. I love to swim, and prefer to hunt for my food in the water. But finding food in the frozen pond is challenging. The snow and ice won’t stop me though, as I leap and bound like an inch worm, staying afloat on the soft winter snow. If you look carefully, you can see my tracks on the frozen pond where I hunt for muskrat and other small mammals.
Thick fur and an insulating layer of fat keep mink warm in the winter.
As the sun sets, I travel alone in the woods near the pond. I hear something. Curious, I sit straight up to see. Look out, it’s an owl! I lift my tail and release a strong musk scent to ward off the predator. Then, I dash to safety. My long, slinky body helps me enter a tunnel on the banks of the pond. There I decide to dig my burrow and line it with leaves, grass, and muskrat fur. This will be my shelter from predators and the winter winds, until the spring when food is more plentiful and my litter of kits are born. You humans have similar challenges in the winter. When temperatures drop, don’t just turn up the thermostat, look for ways to conserve energy. Bundle up like me - put on a warm sweater or jacket, caulk your drafty windows, or replace your old inefficient heaters. There are several programs and tips offered by the City and your utility company to help you keep warm and save energy this winter as well. Visit www.maplewoodmn.gov/energy.
Seasons 2
Mink tunnel in muskrat lodges to catch their prey.
Fall Seasons Correction: After installing 3MTM LED lighting upgrades in 2013, the 5-8 Tavern and Grill saved $14 per day in electricity, for an annual savings of $5,096, not $728 as previously outlined in the Fall Seasons. Thank you to one of our diligent Seasons’ readers for catching the error.
Help Improve My Habitat “Let’s dig!” Snow is flying as the fourth graders use their gloved hands to push the snow aside. The students shriek like they have found gold when they hit the layer of ice below the snow on the frozen pond. A student pipes up: “Where are the turtles? When we were here in the summer, there were turtles swimming!” Little do they know that I am right here below them, swimming slowly in the water! I am taking a short break from hibernating in the mud below the ice to enjoy a quiet swim. Painted turtle’s favorite food is mosquito larva, but we’ll eat plants and bugs too. Lilypads offer shade when it is too hot and cover from predators, and painted turtles also help distribute white water lily seeds! Young painted turtles have to be very careful of predators like foxes, snakes, crows, and snapping turtles, so we are grateful for the cover. We enjoy using muskrat feeding platforms, logs, and lilypads to sun ourselves. The heat is absorbed right through our shells; this is called “basking” and we will climb all over each other to catch those rays.
James Holmes
Stories From Wildlife Friends
Turtles bask in the sun.
Hibernating painted turtles like me are connected to human’s daily lives by precipitation. The water that falls as rain or melts from snow will trickle over lawns and driveways, past car tires, and eventually reach my habitat unfiltered, which can be a problem if there is any litter or pollution in the neighborhoods. Humans can help improve water quality and my habitat. Maplewood installs raingardens during street projects and developments to filter pollutants from stormwater. Street sweeping in the spring and fall collects sand and pollution from the streets before it drains to my habitat. I’ve seen rain barrels installed around buildings that capture stormwater from the roof, which is then used for watering plants.
Maplewood installs raingardens to filter pollutants from the stormwater.
Snowbird The days are getting shorter and with longer nights comes an urge to travel. I’m growing restless as winter approaches - it’s as if the desire to travel is part of my natural instinct. Shedding old downfeather coats in favor of something better suited for warm climates, filling up on a crops-worth of food, and packing on holiday weight long before the holidays. I prepare to avoid the cold. I often travel with my relatives - it’s safer that way. I look forward to warmer temperatures and can’t wait for delicious meals. With our local food diminishing due to temperature changes there’s a magnetic pull leading us to the foods of the south. Our traveling occurs at night, leaving the days for us to relax and fill up on treats. Blackpole Warbler
However, each year these moments of rest have grown difficult to come by. Last year we struggled to find a place to stop! Since our ‘GPS’ is based on sunlight, star constellations, and the Earth’s magnetic field, it isn’t always easy to find a guaranteed meal when habitat is destroyed. Humans can make our journey safer by supplying food and clean water, and by keeping cats indoors so we may seek security in their yards. City lights also interfere with starlight we use to find our way, so limiting light usage in the evening is appreciated. Lastly, many of us collide with reflective windows. Leaving blinds partially closed, hanging sheer curtains, using decals, or keeping windows a little dirty, are great ways to help us notice the glass. Whether you are a “Snowbird” trading boots for sandals as you travel in a vehicle or a Blackpoll Warbler doubling your body weight to withstand a non-stop 1,700 mile flight to a wintering area, migration can bring many challenges that both species seem to agree are worth the risk.
Install window decals to prevent bird collisions
Seasons 3
Stories in the Snow
By Virginia Gaynor, Natural Resources Coordinator When the first snowflakes fall, if you’re inclined to hunker down and hibernate, reconsider. Discover the magic of winter! The secret to enjoying the season is to embrace the elements, dress for the weather, and venture out. Strap on a pair of snowshoes, clip into your skis, grab your skates or a sled. The winter wonderland awaits. Most of Maplewood’s park trails are plowed for winter walking, and some have ice rinks and sledding hills. The Neighborhood Preserves are great places to snowshoe – especially the Priory, Applewood, and the new Fish Creek site. Rent snowshoes at Maplewood Nature Center and explore the pond and woods. Cross-country skiing opens up a whole new way to explore the natural world. And right in Maplewood you can head out on the six kilometers of tracked ski trails at Battle Creek Regional Park East.
Short-Tailed Shrew
While you’re out and about it’s fun to look for stories in the snow. A spiral etched in the snow traces the wind whipping a blade of prairie grass. Threads of bark shredded from the trunk of young trees tell the tale of a buck rubbing the velvet off his antlers and marking this signpost with scent from the glands in his forehead. A tuft of fur and smattering of tracks captures an episode of violence – a hawk killing a rabbit. If you come upon a skinny tunnel, a ridge in the snow surface, it might be the trail of a short-tailed shrew. The short-tailed shrew is about four inches long. In winter, it lives under the blanket of snow, scurrying through damp, dark tunnels in the snow or in the soil. Shrews are omnivores feasting on seeds and plants, spiders, earthworms, insects, and larvae. Their poisonous saliva stuns or immobilizes their prey, allowing them to kill and eat animals larger than they are such as mice, young rabbits, birds, or snakes. To keep up their body temperature in the winter shrews eat their weight in food every day.
Shrew tunnels in the snow.
There are field guides and web sites to help you learn to decipher animal tracks. To develop your skills, you might start in the yard with pet tracks and common backyard animals like squirrels, chipmunks, mice, and blue jays. Then venture into a natural area to enjoy and read the winter landscape. See www.maplewood.mn.gov/nc for snowshoeing and winter programs.
Snowshoe trail.
Winter Residents
Unscramble and draw a line to the animals, then see how many you can find outside this winter! (Check off the animals you find!)
By Kayla Wolfe, Naturalist
WLO
BTIRBA
________
__________
XFO
ERED
________
________
AELGE
SMUOE
________
_________
Photo credits (left to right): Christa Rittberg (owl), Karen Schragg (fox), Maplewood Nature Center (MNC) (tracks), Karen Wachal (eagle), Bryant Olson (rabbit), Anne Burgess (tracks), University of Michigan (scat), MNC (mouse), Tubbs Ambassador (tracks), Myra Smisek (deer), MNC (tracks), Christa Rittberg (scat)
Printed on 100% post-consumer recycled paper
Remember to be respectful of nature when spending time outdoors
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