The Twelve Days of Owls, And Trees

The "Penny Tree" near the Lab

Happy New Year to All.

The busiest part of the season is behind me (and perhaps behind you). I've had a little time to read, and I'm enjoying two great books, one on trees, the other about owls-- two things we have an abundance of here in Minnesota, and at Dodge too.

My good friend and Spruce Room colleague, Kristenza, who has a knack for knowing just what somebody desires, gave me the very lovely, "Twelve Owls," by Laura Erickson, illustrations by Betsy Bowen.  This book is for adults and older kids, but the illustrations and the words can certainly be shared with our younger friends.  Some of the vignettes that Erickson tells about the twelve owls native to Minnesota are quite poignant and interesting, and could be read aloud to preschoolers before bedtime.

Dissecting Owl Pellets

We are lucky to count artist Betsy Bowen among Minnesota's native daughters-- her illustrations of all kinds of native wild animals are full of detail and charisma.  Betsy's work is always popping up (this month's Conservation Volunteer excerpts "Twelve Owls"), and you'll see some of her prints and books in our classrooms at the Preschool too-- they've really become classics.  We have an afternoon class in the Spruce Room that is officially obsessed with owls.  We've had a good time repeatedly acting out the story of "Owl Babies," (another preschool classic) by Martin Wadell.  Most children in the room know the words by heart and this activity has really cemented things for this crew socially.  Right before our holiday, the children were taking turns at different roles and trying their hands at "directing" too.  All the owl mania, led us to have an owl-centric class party with grown-ups.  Together, we hiked out to meet Dodge's own Shakespeare the Barred Owl with naturalist and mom, Julie Allen.  Shakespeare is blind in one eye and so calls the Dodge Raptor Mews home permanently.

You too can visit the Dodge raptors-- Bald Eagle, Red-tailed Hawk, Kestrel and Barred Owl--any day of the week.  The Mews, which is right next to the Main Building at the Nature Center, is always open, just have nice manners when you visit (no yelling, jumping, climbing or throwing things).  These birds are all too injured to return to the wild.

Most Minnesota owls rely on trees, excepting perhaps the Burrowing Owl and the Short-eared Owl, and winter is a great time to get to know trees.  "The Meaning of Trees," was another gift, from my sister-in-law, and this one covers most of the major species (or families?) of trees on Earth.  Tree, by tree, botany, history, lore and mythology are presented to the reader.  The history of trees, and their "migrations" to different spots on earth is particularly fascinating.  The Horse Chestnut did not reach Europe until the 16th century, when a Flemish Ambassador saw the Turks feeding the nuts to their horses.  Because some trees, like chestnuts, have heavier fruit, the wind cannot blow the species farther afield, and animals don't carry them too far, so they take longer to spread.  Some tree species never leave deep ravines-- never, that is, until humans get involved.

Removing Buckthorn with Spruce Teacher Joey

Humans have gotten involved with trees throughout MN history too.  Unfortunately, we made the mistake of importing common buckthorn, Rhamnus Cathartica, from Europe in the 19th century, and we are paying for this mistake.






Buckthorn is invasive and crowds out indigenous plants (see the DNR fact sheet at:  www.dnr.state.mn.us/invasives/terrestrialplants/woody/buckthorn/index.html ).  We are fighting the good fight here at Dodge, with a massive Buckthorn eradication program (if you'd like to join in, stop by the Nature Center and ask for a weed wrench-- somebody will be happy to point you in the right direction).

Heather and Spruce Room friends work the weed wrench...

Got it!

Grandma & Grandpa help out too.

Much of our Buckthorn is now labelled with little bits of blue tape so we can see our target in the winter woods.  Walk in the woods here at Dodge and look around, most of what you see in the underbrush is Buckthorn.  Another Spruce Room class of preschoolers so enjoyed pulling Buckthorn with their teachers, that they decided to host a Buckthorn party with grown-ups.

We pulled lost of 'thorn and got to roast marshmallows at a snowy campfire too.

Marshmallow reward for pulling 'thorn.

I can't resist sharing a few more nuggets from, "The Meaning of Trees":  The "apple" that Eve offered Adam was more likely a quince.  Wild apples have thorns and all cultivated apples, if left to go wild, will eventually start to grow thorns again.  There was a brisk trade in the wood of the Myrrh tree long before Jesus, and Mary gets her name from the Hebrew, Myryam, after the Sumerian Marienna which was their word for the Myrrh tree.  The Myrrh tree was the Mother Earth symbol for this culture prior to the arrival of Mary; so Mary is named after the Tree of Life.  While these details are interesting for tree geeks (my kids are named after trees), kids will certainly enjoy the mythological stories shared in the compendium, like the one about why sugar maple trees turn red in autumn.

According to the Iroquois legend of "The Hunting of the Great Bear," four brothers chased a really big bear and eventually ate it for dinner.  But, as they digested, they found that they had ascended to the heavens, where the bear's bones reassembled and the hunters got up and continued their pursuit, in perpetuity.  They all of course make the constellation of the Great Bear and every autumn the hunters finally catch up with the bear and his blood rains down to earth, turning the leaves scarlet (is the constellation closest to the Iroquois' Northern Hemisphere then, I wonder?).  Turns out maple sap contains balanced sugars, potassium, calcium, magnesium, manganese, vitamins A, B2, B5, B6, as well as folic acid, niacin, biotin and proteins.  No wonder kids like maple syrup so much!  Another reason to attend the Pancake Breakfast at Dodge's Frosty Fun Festival.

So, it's still a great time of year to get outside.  Listen for the hoots of nesting owls, particularly Great Horned Owls, and look for interesting sleeping trees-- the bark of dormant deciduous trees is particularly apparent this time of year, and you can see who's been eating, scraping and pecking them (rabbits, squirrels, owls, woodpeckers, deer etc).  My favorites are Silver and Paper birches in winter (there are a few here and there at Dodge).  See if you can find the giant poplar trees along the western edge of the Nature Center property, right along the east side of Mrs. Dodge's pond (ponds with fountains on the map).  Some of the mighty have fallen  (kids love to climb the giant trunks), but I heard a rumor that someone from the U came out and found a live tree that he thinks might set an age record in MN...shh.  Even the youngest preschoolers can hike it out to those sleeping giants, why not you too?