MV NATURE
february in nature story and photos by Matt Perry One of my favorite things to do in nature in wintertime is to follow streams. In February, following a woodland stream can be a rewarding and revelatory experience. One never quite knows what one is going to find. The frozen stream has always captured my imagination, primarily because of its beauty and the variations in the ice formations encountered. I’ve written about these “ice galleries” in a previous winter-themed article. Of course, despite its frozen appearance, the icy stream remains alive and moving. It courses through the arteries of our nature preserve in winter every bit as much as it does during the other three seasons. On a cool day in late February, I picked up the stream at our main-trail creek crossing and followed it as it meandered north and west. The stream had been encrusted with ice just two days before, but a warming trend and a few hours of overnight rain recharged the flow and melted some of the ice. There were a few inches of slushy snow along the stream banks and, as I walked, I examined the ground closely for footprints or anything
else of interest. It wasn’t long before I found tracks of a pair of raccoons. That came as no surprise since raccoons are closely associated with water and they usually become active during mild spells in winter. They love following creeks and they use their well-articulated forepaws to probe the shallows for invertebrates. Sure enough, their muddy footprints showed that they worked both sides of the creek before strutting back into the forest and disappearing. Slowly crawling on top of the snow near one of our footbridges was a Stonefly. There are thousands of species of Stoneflies that inhabit regions throughout the world. The
Yellow-spotted Salamander in the snow – photo by Tim Johnston one I found breeds in our streams and its adult form is only encountered on mild winter days. When the temperature gets close to the freezing point or just above, you can find them out of water, sometimes in fair numbers, congregating on stream banks or even on woodland trails that intersect streams. After mating, the female Stonefly lays her eggs in the water. Once the eggs hatch, the Stonefly larvae attach themselves to something stable underwater and may live that way for years. Nutrients come to them in the moving water and they take their food
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