(C) Daily Kos
This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered.
. . . . . . . . . .
The Daily Bucket: “Winter World” and a Few Other Books About Nature [1]
['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']
Date: 2023-12-19
The path in Winter, January 2023
Wintertime is a good time for reading. It’s easy to settle into my own literary torpor when the days are short and dark; the veggie garden and invasive plants in the meadow aren’t competing for my attention.
Into about the second chapter of Winter World — the ingenuity of animal survival by Berne Heinrich, I thought, “Daily Bucketeers would like this book”. Maybe someone had recommended it already in comments on a diary, and that’s how it got added to my “Books to Read” spreadsheet, who knows.
THE DAILY BUCKET IS A NATURE REFUGE. WE AMICABLY DISCUSS ANIMALS, WEATHER, CLIMATE, SOIL, PLANTS, WATERS AND NOTE LIFE’S PATTERNS.
WE INVITE YOU TO NOTE WHAT YOU ARE SEEING AROUND YOU IN YOUR OWN PART OF THE WORLD, AND TO SHARE YOUR OBSERVATIONS IN THE COMMENTS BELOW.
FOR MORE INFORMATION ABOUT THE PURPOSE AND HISTORY OF THE DAILY BUCKET FEATURE, CHECK OUT THIS DIARY: DAILY BUCKET PHENOLOGY: 11 YEARS OF RECORDING EARTH'S VITAL SIGNS IN OUR NEIGHBORHOODS
Winter World is a detailed scientific work with exhaustive references. The book also contains highly entertaining anecdotes of the author’s own research and observations (review of Winter World).
The chipmunk’s large cheek pouches indicate an ancient evolutionary commitment to storing food. I do not know how many seeds a chipmunk usually packs into each of its pouches—I easily inserted sixty black sunflower seeds through the mouth into just one pouch of a roadkill.
Hibernation, diapause, circadian clocks, cryobiology, freezing point depression, torpor and migration are some of the winter survival strategies discussed. Amphibians, reptiles, insects, birds and mammals are considered, taking note of seasonal changes and evolutionary development. The author has his own intriguing hypothesis on the development of feathers and flight, related to cold temperature adaptations.
Red Squirrel in the old Crabapple Tree, November 2022
Heinrich cites studies from all over the northern hemisphere, but the bulk of his research and observations are from his own backyard, a cabin in the woods of Maine. He is a professor of biology at the University of Vermont.
Squirrel nest in my woods, December 2023
As a result of reading this book, my wintertime walks in the meadow and woods have taken on new meaning. I look at the squirrel and bird nests, the leaf litter, even the bark of the trees in new light.
There are a few other nature books that come to mind, since we’re on the subject. Some I’ve read recently, some are old favorites.
The first two take place in far eastern Russia.
🦉 “Owls of the Eastern Ice” by Jonathan Slaght:
A record of Slaght’s four seasons of fieldwork in the remote forests of Primorye, a region of Russia bordering North Korea and the Sea of Japan (The Guardian).
Slaught’s fieldwork looking for Fish Owls took place in the same area as the next book, one that reflects my penchant for reading journals of early explorers.
🏔️ “Dersu Uzala” by Vladimir Arsenyev:
A 1923 memoir by the Russian explorer Vladimir Arsenyev, concerning his travels in the Russian Far East with the Goldi hunter Dersu Uzala (Wikipedia).
“Dersu Uzala” was made into a 1961 film (Russian), and a 1975 Soviet-Japanese version that won an Academy Award for best foreign film.
🌲 ‘A Forest Journey: The Role of Trees in the Fate of Civilization’ by John Perlin:
We don’t think of wood as the unsung hero of the technological revolution, but trees provided the material for fire that made habitation of cold climates possible; charcoal and wood made it possible to evaporate brine from saltwater to make salt; heat from wood fires melted potash and sand to produce glass. The list goes on and on. Consider the role wood played in transportation, from carts, chariots, and wagons to canoes and ships. Wood-based means of transportation were essential for exploration, trade, manufacture, and warfare. Wood was also central to the fossil-fuel age as large-scale coal mining depended on timber for props, supports, and rails (from review linked above).
Wasp nest, December 2021
🌱 John Eastman’s series on North American plants and ecosystems:
John Andrew Eastman was an American naturalist and writer and a Kalamazoo resident. Of many publications, probably his most influential were three books, The Book of Forest and Thicket , The Book of Swamp and Bog , and The Book of Field and Roadside . They are field guides of a special, ecological sort. Arranged by species of plant, they deal with the interactions of each species with its associates–consumers, parasites, competitors, mutualists–and with the physical features of its habitat” (Richard Brewer’s Blog).
John Eastman was a local writer, so these books are particularly valuable for me. I can pick them up and reread them, and always learn something that I’d probably forgotten. I rarely buy books, being big fan of public libraries, but these won a place on my bookshelves.
American Tree Sparrow, January 2022
🦃 I can’t end this diary without mentioning “Illumination in the Flatwoods” by Joe Hutt. A Daily Bucketeer recommended it after I mentioned how much I loved the BBC/PBS documentary My Life as a Turkey. After reading this delightful book, I was better able to understand the behavior of the local wild Turkeys in my backyard.
Back to Winter World, it made me ponder the changing climate. I learned that very small changes in temperature can affect overwintering creatures, large and small. We think about changes in precipitation, temperature, storm systems. I’ve noticed a significant change in snowfall patterns in SW Michigan. It’s another thing to consider as the planet warms up.
Mourning Cloak Butterfly, March 2021
Now it’s your turn. What’s happening in your backyard? Have you observed winter survival strategies?
[END]
---
[1] Url:
https://dailykos.com/stories/2023/12/19/2209083/-The-Daily-Bucket-Winter-World-and-a-Few-Other-Books-About-Nature?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=more_community&pm_medium=web
Published and (C) by Daily Kos
Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified.
via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds:
gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/
