JW: I'm Judy Wagley, this is “From the Ground Up!”. Last week we heard my visit with Mike LeValley; he is the executive director of the Chippewa Watershed Conservancy. As we walked through Sylvan Solace Nature Preserve, Mike told us about what he looks for in Mother Nature's garden this time of year. Then I asked him this, “When we go out just for a leisurely hike, what are some things that we could be on the lookout for?”
ML: You know, I'm always looking for wildlife no matter what time of year. This time of year, one of the things I find a lot are the squirrels. They're noticing me definitely faster than I'm noticing them. But like in a place like this right now, where we're surrounded by pines, one of the things I might be looking for are the squirrels-- in particular red squirrels. They are what's called a cash hoarder. You think about squirrels, like the grey squirrels and the fox squirrels, they bury nuts all over the place. The red squirrels, they take everything and put them in one big giant pile. So you might go out into a place like this, and you see a just a pile like two foot high of pine cones. And that is that little red squirrel’s food source to last over the next several months. And if you've ever noticed, the red squirrels tend to be really aggressive. So even if you get one on your bird feeder, they'll chase off even the larger squirrels, because they are so used to defending a single source of food. That gray squirrel that's got stuff buried all over--they don't really care too much. But that little red squirrel. They'll be really aggressive sometimes.
JW: So we're on the lookout for the red squirrel. And then we hear some nice birds.
ML: Yeah, you know, there's not a lot of birds this time of year. You know, most of the migratory ones are gone. Surprising though, there's still a lot of robins around. We do have a lot of robins that stay throughout the winter months, and they're going to feed on the berries that are out here in the woods. There's a lot of bluebirds that are still around as well. And the same thing-- rather than being out in the open habitat and eating insects, they're going to retreat into the more forested habitats, and feed off of the berries and seeds and things like that. Other wildlife, you know, it slows down quite a bit. Actually, more of the residential birds and then the small mammals and the deer—those are the sorts of things that we're going to see year round.
JW: Mike, we have another special attraction here at Sylvan Solace. What is this?
ML: So this is an ant mound. They are actually known as mound ants-- big surprise. And this one's been here for decades. I mean, it's probably close to five feet tall and 10 feet across.
JW: Wow. And they say that ants are busy, yeah, that's true!
ML: Yeah, in this case, it's taken them a very long time to build this. There's a few other smaller ones on the property that are not nearly this size, but there's one right up by the parking lot. It's only like three or four years old, and it's already getting close to three feet high.
JW: How do they do that?
ML: They're just gathering organic material. Some of it is excavated below ground and others as they're bringing in, in this case, pine needles and piling everything up. And you know, they're going out from here and foraging.
JW: That's amazing! Of course, we don't see ants here now in November.
ML: But yeah, even during the winter, if you get a warm day, the tops of these ant mounds will have ants that are active on them. So I've come out here in like February, and the ones that are out in the open that are exposed to the sun, they will be active even in February.
JW: Thanks for showing us that Mike!
As I continued my walk with Mike, I commented about how he seems to know-- in great detail-- about everything that is happening here!
ML: Yeah, that's just totally, you know, having been exposed to stuff like that. There's lots of little things that as you spend more time outdoors, you just notice things. And I do a lot of reading and you know, learn stuff that way. Just years of spending time outdoors, years of being curious.
JW: That's the secret! Years of spending time outdoors and years of being curious!
ML: Absolutely! You know, you always have to be learning. If you want to know something, you have to go out and figure it out.
JW: That's the best advice I've heard in a long time. Thank you!
ML: Thank you, Judy, we appreciate you coming out today. And you know, we always want the public to come out on any of our nature preserves any time!
