Snow-covered trees stand out against a bright blue sky
Kent McFarland
This month, wildlife and the rest of us here in New England will cross a threshold – arbitrary yet not insignificant: 10 hours of daylight. So here’s a Field Guide to February to help get your hopes up, no matter what that Groundhog predicts.
By Amber Jones
With colder weather and darker days, winter often feels like a time when the world slows down to rest; but a walk outside in a few inches of fresh snow can tell a different story.
New-fallen snow provides one of the best mediums for tracking animals. Individual tracks appear clearly and trails can often be followed. A good rule of thumb when tracking for fun is to follow the trail backwards—see where the animal has been, not where it’s going. This can prevent needlessly disturbing or stressing the animal by following it.
Try some of these basic tips when you find tracks in the snow.
Most importantly, have fun! Learning about the animals around us can be a fun and enlightening way to spend a couple of hours on a cold winter day. Want to practice your tracks but avoid the cold? Help us identify track observations posted to iNaturalist!
By Onome Ofoman
Winter can be a tricky time when it comes to figuring out which tree is which. Since most deciduous trees have dropped their leaves, you may want some clues to crack the case!
With a little practice, you’ll be a tree-spotting pro even in the middle of winter. Stumped by a perplexing trait? Post your winter twigs and buds on iNaturalist or help someone else identify theirs!
By Dana Williams
On February 2nd, a Groundhog named Phil will crawl out of his burrow to great ceremony and decide the fate of spring for the 138th time. Although Phil (and his many predecessors of the same name) is the most well-known, he is only one of North America’s 67 spring weather predictors—a group that includes a few less groundhoggy individuals. While Groundhogs are not much better at predicting weather than a coin flip, their appearance does coincide with the arrival of spring.
The Groundhog is one of a small number of mammals in our region classified as a “true hibernator,” joining two species of jumping mice and a handful of bats. True hibernation involves a significant drop in body temperature, metabolic rate, heart rate (as low as 5 beats per minute in Groundhogs!), and respiratory rate that lasts for 4 to 6 months. Other animals may enter a deep sleep but may rouse on warm days, which is why you should watch your bird feeders for bears during unusually warm spells. In late February and early March, males dig their way out of the mud, feces, and vegetation ‘plug’ they used in the fall to close off their hibernation chamber. Over the next month, they will search for females to wake up by digging them out of their burrows. When not disturbing others, Groundhogs will spend their time chowing down on grass, forbs, and sometimes even tree bark to make up the 30% of their body weight lost over the winter.
If you happen to see a Groundhog running around, watch for tail flagging, a territorial behavior marked by quick vertical movements of the tail that often devolve into a whimsical helicopter motion. Keep track of Groundhog emergence this spring with the iNaturalist ‘filters’ feature on the Explore page. This tool allows you to search for observations based on the month they were submitted!
By Kent McFarland
Winter is typically a silent season, but February marks the return of sound to the landscape as mating season begins. Here are some of the mystery sounds you might be hearing at night:
Adult Red Foxes are usually solitary until mating season, which begins in late January and lasts until early March in New England. Red Foxes attract each other with high-pitched screams or a series of barks at night that are often attributed to a Fisher (a generally quiet species).
Listen to the distant barking screams of a Red Fox on iNaturalist.
Eastern Coyote breeding season peaks around the middle of February. The howl of coyotes can usually be heard on winter nights, especially during mating season. They can also sound like they’re cackling with a series of short barks.
Coyote? Eastern Coyote? Coy-dog? Coy-wolf? What is this canine? Learn more about its name and natural history from the VPR podcast – A Brave Little State.
Barred Owls are always chatty but are particularly so during the breeding season from late February to early April. Their “Who cooks for you? Who cooks for you all?” call might be interspersed with an extra raucous duet known as caterwauling. Barred Owls likely mate for life.
Add your sightings to the Vermont Atlas of Life on iNaturalist and see where others have heard or seen them too.
