The science of noticing stuff

By David Horst

I really love the concept of phenology.

This woodcook didn't check a phenology calendar.
It came to our house with snow still on the ground.

The unscientific definition is you sit outdoors and notice stuff. You do this every year and record the day the first bluebird arrives or when the owls start their winter hooting. The possibilities are as endless as the list of plant and animal species.

Over the years, you build a calendar of when all of these “firsts” happen and check if the dates change.

Friends recently bought us a copy of the phenology calendar sold by the Aldo Leopold Foundation. The pioneer environmentalist was an avid recorder of events in nature. He even knew from using a light meter that it was at precisely at 0.50 foot-candles of light during sunset that the woodcocks on his central Wisconsin farm would start their mating behavior, which involves a male woodcock diving from high altitude and folding his wings just so to create an eerie whistling sound. You can read about that in the essay “Sky Dance” in Leopold’s literary treasure A Sand County Almanac.

Having the calendar adds to our daily breakfast table a recitation of the day’s nature events. The Leopold Foundation is near Baraboo, so the dates all reflect what’s happening in the Madison area. We are a few days behind that here in the Fox Valley.

Checking the recent entries on Sunday suggested the more modest among you should walk through the woods with your eyes covered in the coming week. Wednesday, Jan. 23, the red foxes begin mating. It’s hard enough to see foxes in the wild so an embarrassing encounter is unlikely.

Wolves get frisky on Jan. 24. This brings to mind the mating practices of Klingons on Star Trek.

Beavers will be at it Jan. 25 and lynx the next day. Gray and fox squirrels get to it Jan. 28, as if there aren’t enough of them already.

Other than Canada geese arriving Friday – and with the number of resident Canada geese we have, that’s no big deal -- the week in phenology is all about doing the nasty.

February will bring bluebirds, turkey vultures and skunk cabbage, at least in the Madison area. Before the last bite of toast is swallowed, we’ll know to look for them.