After a very strange 2011, weather wise, 2012 seems to be starting out on the same path. It’s been an unusually warm winter so far with very little snow and temperatures in the 30s and 40s most days. While some folks are grateful for this, farmers in the Northeast are concerned. Unusually warmer or colder weather affects everything in the natural world. The science that studies this is Phenology. Phenology examines recurring biological phenomena and their relationship to weather. Bird migration, hunting and gathering seasons, blooming of wildflowers and trees, and the seasonal appearance of insects are examples of phenological events that have been recorded for centuries. We have all observed that plants bloom earlier in warm springs. Insects also emerge earlier when it is warm. For this reason, plant phenology can be used to predict insect emergence. The use of plant phenology to predict insect activity is an old practice, with recorded observations dating back at least 300 years. Research at The Ohio State University has shown that plants bloom and insects emerge in virtually the same order every year, no matter what kind of weather occurred that winter or spring. For this reason, the flowering sequence of plants can be used as a biological calendar to predict insect activity, and to time other gardening practices that are dependent on a particular stage of plant development, such as propagation or weed control. The cold period of winter is necessary for northern fruit plants such as currants, to set their buds which are the precursor of the flowers and subsequent fruit. If there’s not enough cold, it’ll be a poor crop. If it is warm enough to encourage early blooming and we then get a freeze when the flowers are open, it could kill the entire harvest. It’s a pretty delicate balancing act that usually works out fine but only usually.
Our globe’s dance through the cosmos and the result on our climate is complex to say the least. The first day of winter marks the time when days grow colder even though the amount of daylight increases each day. The first day of summer is the beginning of the very hot season while the daylight decreases with each passing day. To add to the confusion, the first week in January, usually the coldest time of the year in the Northern hemisphere, is the time of the perihelion, when Earth reaches its closest point to the Sun.
I saw a bear poking around my compost pile the middle of December, long after he was supposed to be tucked in for his winter’s slumber and last week, robber bees from a strong hive somewhere nearby were attacking the new weaker colony I hived up 8 months ago and stealing their precious stores of honey. I’ll have to start feeding them to get them through until the first nectar flow. Of course, amidst all of this natural chaos, there are constants, one of which is a year round resident here on our farm. It’s a presence that we’re most often aware of in the dead of night and when they are most frenzied it can stand the hair up on the back of your neck. The eerie howls, yips, barks and, if they’re close enough, growls of the eastern Coyote are the stuff of legend and lore. Recent DNA research has proven that this distant cousin of the lanky, mangy looking western version is actually a cross with an eastern wolf. This explains their beautiful full coat, bushy tail and varied color patterns from yellow to grey.
They are about the size of a small German Shepard with pointy ears and alert intense eyes. Their numbers have been increasing over the last few decades to the point where they are now quite common although rarely seen due to their mostly nocturnal lifestyle. Their diet is an opportunistic one mainly of mice, insects, berries and rabbits and the occasional turkey when they can catch one as solitary hunters. They live in packs and there seems to be evidence that they are beginning to hunt in packs and take small or sickly deer. This development may help balance out the overpopulation of deer around these parts. Like most carnivores, they’ll readily avail themselves of carrion. The biggest problem with their proximity to humans is that they will also carry off the odd cat or small dog if the opportunity presents itself.
Nature is pretty much made up of eators and eatees and most eators become eatees eventually. Cycles and balance. The constant affray for balance perpetuates the cycles. The mouse that’s gnawing away the bark of my currant bush becomes dinner for the coyote which allows the currant bush to live producing a crop of currants which becomes the harvest of the farm and the healthy berries on your table. To live the agrarian life is to live with and be acutely aware of nature’s cycles. And even when, at 2am, my sleep is broken by the cold, soulless howl of predators nearby, I wouldn’t have it any other way.
Cheers from the farm,
Greg








