Amazing Arctic Animals

Kids often give me inspiration to learn more, today is no exception. While at the Chemung River for the last time this Fall with the 4th graders from Beecher Elementary, one young man relayed his story of discovery of a giant grasshopper in his backyard. He said it was an Arctic Grasshopper...? That is not something I am famililar with, so I just said, "oh really, here in Chemung County?" and he said, "Yes." So, I came back, turned my computer on and did a search... Guess what? No Arctic Grasshopper. There are grasshoppers up there though. There are a lot of interesting Arctic animals in fact.

I came upon the Arctic Tern and I remembered from my college ornithology days that they were the birds that migrated the longest distance, but I didn't remember how long. They travel from the Arctic tundra (within the Arctic Circle), where they nest, to the edge of the Antarctic ice pack during the winter. This journey totals over 21,750 miles each year - roughly the circumference of the Earth! That is a lot of flying for a bird that weighs less than a pound and is little over 12 inches long.

Although I didn't find any information about the Arctic Grasshopper, I did read how Arctic insects (and other insects) avoid freezing. They can tolerate temperatures below 0 degrees F because they have antifreeze proteins (APF's) that intefere with water freezing on them and in their hemolymph (insect blood). No shivering since they don't thermoregulate like we do, but antifreeze- cool!

I know the Arctic is pretty far away from this area, but we should sometimes try and learn about life on all Earth, not just in our backyard.

Fall Color

Fall, my second favorite season after spring. Only second because it leads to winter. I love winter in December and even January, but after that...yuck. Fall though; colorful trees, good smells, apple picking, soccer and football season, all great stuff. It is looking to be a pretty fall too. If I recall correctly, last year was a bit drab. Why the differences in fall color from year to year?

There are many factors that go into the changing of the leaves every year. Chlorophyll, the green substance in plants where photosynthesis happens, stops being produced in the fall because there isn't enough sunlight or water in the winter for this miraculous process to continue. When the green starts to disappear, other colors are left according to the pigments already in the leaves but not visible when all that green is there. There are yellows and oranges (carotenoids) as well as browns (which actually come partially from wastes like tannin) in the leaves. Color is also affected by the amount of sugar in the leaves (then you see reds and purples from anthocyanins).

A series of warm, sunny days, followed by cool but not freezing nights like we have had this year seems to stimualte more reds and purples (because there is more sugar made during the day that gets trapped in the leaves), which in turn gives us a more brilliant fall. The oranges and yellows don't vary all that much from year to year because they are the result of pigments that are already there, just not revealed until chorophyll stops being produced.

Looks like we are at just over 50% peak, so get out and enjoy fall in the Northeast since we are lucky enough to be blessed with the beauty of the season, and this year is particularly beautiful!

Trails Closed

Just a note to hikers that a few of our trails will be closed in November and December due to hunting season. Our Boyd Trail and Red and Blue trails have areas adjacent that allow hunting (private property) and since rifles are allowed this year, we feel it is best to close these trails for safety reasons. But our other trails and our building are still open and the trees are beautiful, so come on up and enjoy fall at Tanglewood!