winter on the mountain
Kent McFarland
Although the days are slowly growing longer, life in the Northeast now finds itself in the coldest depths of winter. January is about survival. Wildlife that doesn’t migrate adapts instead in order to make it to spring.
By Jason Loomis
Have you ever noticed that oaks (Quercus), beeches (Fagus), and hornbeams (Carpinus) are slower than other broadleaf trees to release their leaves when the cold sets in? While they technically meet the definition of deciduous—with leaves that fall off seasonally—these trees differ from our region’s maples, aspens, and ashes, which drop their leaves more readily. Many oak, beech, and hornbeam leaves remain attached well into winter, when they are eventually removed by wind; others hold fast until spring, when they complete the process of abscission and fall off. This has earned trees in this group a mouthful of a moniker: everciduous.
Some botanists hypothesize that everciduous trees are less evolved than their fully deciduous brethren—specifically, that their abscission feature is half-baked. Nonetheless, this juvenile evolutionary trait must confer some advantage.
One of the proposed benefits of retaining leaves for oak and beech species relates to their association with poor, well-drained soils. By waiting until spring to drop dead leaves, they delay the onset of last year’s leaf composting until their awakening buds demand nutrients from the soil. This shift in the timing of nutrient supply could provide, on balance, better soil conditions over the course of the growing season.
Another idea posits that retained leaves help a tree accumulate a deeper snowpack, providing a source of water from snowmelt to start the growing season. Yet another says that leaves protect new buds from being eaten by browsing fauna during winter.
It’s fun to imagine how this curious evolutionary feature might favor everciduous trees; and it’s nice to be reminded of it when we encounter them on early-winter walks in the woods. There is some comfort in knowing that evergreen, deciduous, and everciduous trees employ a variety of strategies to persist in our forests!
By Dana Williams
Winter is the time of year to enjoy the outdoors without an accompanying cloud of black flies, mosquitoes, or deer flies; but that doesn’t mean you can escape all insects in the snowy cold. Although many insects this time of year are in the hibernation-like state of diapause, some hearty species are out and about just waiting to be spotted. While you’re outside enjoying the season, keep an eye out for these winter movers.
Juvenile Longjawed Orbweaver Spiders traverse ski tracks on warm winter days. These delicate-looking arachnids rest with their front legs squeezed together straight in front of them, a behavior that has earned them the nickname “stretch spiders.” In the summer, this posture helps them hide behind thin blades of grass. If you look closely, you can identify the Green Longjawed Orbweaver by their brilliant green color, which helps them camouflage in their favorite trees: pines and firs.
Springtails (Hypogastrura) live year-round in leaf litter and decaying logs, but during the winter some species, like Hypogastrura nivicola, darken the snow in feeding swarms that can reach densities upwards of 10 million individuals per acre! Each of these miniscule creatures has a modified appendage called a furcula folded underneath its body, which releases like a spring and propels it across the snow. This jumpy behavior explains why many refer to springtails as snow fleas.
Adult winter stoneflies may seem confused stumbling around on the snow in mid-winter but these little black stream insects are actually just avoiding the crowds. Rather than compete with other species for space and resources during the busy summer, they have flipped their entire life cycle. Larvae grow during the fall and emerge as adults during the winter to mate. If you see one of these insects, consider yourself lucky—winter stoneflies are important indicators of clean, healthy watersheds.
Even in the winter you can still contribute to iNaturalist and share sightings with the Arthropods on Snow project!
By Kent McFarland
The 26th annual Winter Finch Forecast predicts that irruptions this year will be subdued in New England. With widespread cone crops available from British Columbia to eastern Quebec and down the western mountains, in addition to bumper berry crops in the boreal forest, winter finches have plenty of food to keep them at home.
Irruptive movements are dramatic and irregular migrations of large numbers of birds to areas far outside their normal winter range. The yearly Winter Finch Forecast, put together by field ornithologists at the Finch Research Network, gathers information on seed and berry crops from across the North to help predict irruptions of a select group of “winter finches,” from Pine Siskins and sunny yellow Evening Grosbeaks to rosy red and pink Pine Grosbeaks, Red Crossbills, and Redpolls.
Species Predictions
Last year, the driver of the Red Crossbill invasion in the East was the bumper Eastern White Pine crop, which is largely absent from the trees this year. Right now, Northeastern or type 12 Red Crossbills are common in the Adirondacks and eastward into Nova Scotia, feeding on Red Spruce seeds. Red Crossbill types are difficult to identify without recordings of their flight calls. Recordings can be made with a smartphone and identified to type by experts if uploaded to your eBird Vermont checklist.
Most of these birds should remain in the boreal forest, where they have access to a good crop of White Spruce cones; however, there are scattered reports in Vermont now.
With American Mountain Ash and other species to the north yielding a bumper berry crop, Pine Grosbeaks will mostly remain in the boreal forest. Mountain Ashes in the Green Mountains also appear to have abundant berries according to reports to the Vermont Atlas of Life on iNaturalist.
Spruce Budworm outbreaks and large berry crops boosted Evening Grosbeak reproduction in the North this year. This should lead to a moderate flight southward. There are already widespread reports to eBird Vermont from across the state.
A bumper crop of birch seeds will keep them well to our north this year. It should be noted that the 2024 checklist by the American Ornithological Society provided a clear answer based on several genetic studies: the three redpoll species previously recognized—Common, Hoary, and Lesser Redpoll (Europe)—are now a single species, known simply as Redpoll.
There could be minor movements southward for Pine Siskin populations from areas where Spruce Budworm outbreaks have hampered seed production on infested trees.
Want to help track the movements of these northern visitors and see where they have been found near your neighborhood? You can check live maps from eBird Vermont, and you can also submit your sightings of winter finches to eBird Vermont!
By Kent McFarland
White-tailed Deer survive the harsh northern winter using habitats that most of us call “deeryards.” These areas have ample evergreen trees for cover on slopes that often have a southerly aspect, providing protection from deep snow, cold temperatures, and northerly wind. Deeryards range from just a few acres in size to as much as 100 acres. These yards can be used for generations as long as evergreen cover persists. Deer may migrate to these areas from miles around since the protection they provide can cut the energetic cost of winter in half. Surviving this time of scarcity allows deer to make it until the lush spring grasses arrive.
Deeryards, which make up only 8% of Vermont’s forested landscape, are also important for other wildlife: porcupines, snowshoe hares, foxes, fishers, coyotes, bobcats, crows, ravens, crossbills, owls, and more. Human encroachment or poorly planned forestry operations can have a devastating effect on these stands and the wildlife that rely on them.
Listen to Outdoor Radio as VCE biologists visit a deeryard and talk more about these critical habitats.
By Ryan Rebozo
Most vascular plants can be identified by their flowers or fruits. Particularly difficult plants, such as hawthorns or sedges, may require multiple visits in a given year to key out their characteristics at both the flowering and fruiting stages. But just because flowering and fruiting occur during the growing season doesn’t mean we can’t positively identify all sorts of plants during winter. Winter ID requires focusing on traits that do not readily change, such as branching pattern or bark, and on clues from the previous season’s fruiting.
A fun place to start may be working to identify Vermont’s seven native species of maples.* Their opposite branching helps to separate them out from most other canopy tree species except for ashes, which have thicker terminal branches, often resembling fingers. Striped Maple (Acer pensylvanicum) may be one of the easiest to differentiate with its vertically striped bark and its growth form as a small, midstory tree. Red (Acer rubrum) and Sugar Maples (Acer saccharum), our two most common maple species, are most readily differentiated in winter by looking at their buds. Red Maples have round buds, with the two side buds as large but angling away from the terminal bud. Sugar Maples have pointed buds, with the two side buds smaller and pointing in the same direction as the terminal bud. Black Maple (Acer nigrum), an uncommon species in Vermont, stands apart from our other canopy maples with its dark, almost black bark. The remaining three maples can be identified with some habitat-related clues. Along riverbanks, lakeshores, and floodplains you can find Silver Maples (Acer saccharinum), with their often leaning trunks and plated bark, and Box Elders (Acer negundo), a maple species that stands out in summer with its compound leaves but is most readily identified in winter by its waxy, pubescent (hairy) twigs.** Last is the Mountain Maple (Acer spicatum), which as the name suggests is a species of montane forests. This is a midstory tree with 2-4 scales on its winter buds.
Two good resources for year-round plant ID are the New Flora of Vermont by Arthur Gilman, a hardcover guide that encompasses native and non-native plant species, and the Native Plant Trust’s Go Botany website, which features an online dichotomous key for all New England plants. For a resource focused on winter ID, A Guide to Wildflowers in Winter by Carol Levine is beginner-friendly and will cover many plants of the Northeast.
* There are at least three introduced maple species in Vermont, typically found around human disturbance: Hedge Maple (Acer campestre), Amur Maple (Acer ginnala), and Norway Maple (Acer platanoides).
** Acer negundo, a species more common in the Midwest, has had its nativity in Vermont questioned due to a lack of early accounts. This species may be native to areas around Lake Champlain and has since expanded its range statewide.
I too have wondered why those trees maintained their leaves. Thanks for the info as to why this may be.