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December 07, 2006 - Signs of the cold to comeThe Suffolk Times • December 7, 2006 CO „;r;o", 4 / r We're early risers and today, when we sat with our coffee before the big picture window that overlooks our pasture, we were treated to a complete color change. Instead of a green pasture, it was now painted in white. Nature's frost had been busy during the early - morning hours collecting minute ice crystals for ev- ery blade of grass. We wondered how the cow would fare, for its graz- ing would now be a bit chilly with the new frosty covering. At the first ray of sunshine, the pasture slowly reverted to its green covering. Previously, frost had made my garden a dreary place to see. The frost had frozen and ruptured the plants' leaves, leaving them a dark, lifeless mass. Gone are my zinnias, my cosmos, and all the colorful plants that briehtened one's life. lans of t e ;® C( .d �ti ur a 0; )me FOCu S ON NATURE by Paul Stou tenburgh W I e Suffolk Time-, PholoS by Paul Stoutenburgh Left: In our vegetable garden Jack Frost visited each leaf with its magical covering of ice crystals called frost. Above: The woolly bear will sleep away the winter hidden under a board or log anywhere that affords protection from winter's cold. In the spring it will be transformed into a beautiful moth. One thing that so far has been able withstand the killing blow of frost i favorite rosebush. I've taken most the buds off and brought them in e house, where they opened, show- ; off all their splendor. I'd left one fd on the bush in hopes the mild weatner we've Deen navmg wouia prolong its wonder, and, sure enough, was able to get another week's growth out of it and now that single bud grac- es our coffee table. It's our last rose of summer. To me, frost is one of the real harbingers of what is to come; it tells us winter is on its way. Most of -us know or have seen that fuzzy orange- and -black caterpillar that is supposed to forecast the weather to come. It's called the woolly bear. Folk- lore has it that they can predict the weather. As a matter of fact, there are quite a few versions of its mythical power to predict the future weather. One belief is that if there is more black than the red- dish -brown coloring, we will have a bad winter. If they are all black, the worst win- ter is coming. And if there is more brown than black, we will have a mild winter. I'm sure there are even more versions of this story; it just depends on who is telling the tale. To set the stories straight, some years ago several scientists made a study of the differences in color and size of the woolly bear and, sorry to say, couldn't find any of the "old wives' tales" about them to be true. We can put those tales to rest, but it's still fun to speculate. At the end of winter, when warmer temperatures move in, the woolly bear starts its transformation into a color- ful Isabella tiger moth. To accomplish this incredible task, it spins a cocoon about itself and, within a week or so, transforms itself from a caterpillar into a beautiful moth. Pretty unbelievable, I call it. Another way to tell that winter is on its wav is by the arrival of some of our winter birds that have just recently moved in from the North, where they spent the summer raising their young. Under our bird feeder we see juncos and white - throated sparrows that will be with us throughout the winter. They are ground feeders, so make sure there's .always some wild birdseed on the ground for them. Of course, that will also draw the trim - looking mourn- ing doves and sparrows, finches, etc. Last week I mentioned my going out in the bay and seeing sea ducks from the North that will stay in our bays throughout the winter. Many of these ducks I identify, by using my binoculars. A typical example of how we never, well, hardly ever, go anywhere without binoculars was just yester- day when we went for a drive-for a change of pace. We found ourselves driv ing along the causeway to Orient. As we drove along, we couldn't help seeing that foreign invader, the bittersweet, that climbed over trees and bushes. I guess there's a good side to bittersweet, and that is it provides bird food for a great number of differ- ent kinds of birds. At one place a floc of starlings were feeding on the ber- ries. At another location we sat watch- ing 50 or more common grackles just sunning themselves on telephone wires. Evidently they had their fill of berries and were sleeping it off in the unusually warm spell of weather we were having. We were parked so close to those perched birds that some of their drop- pings managed to fall on the hood and windshield of our car. We could see the seeds of the red berries. No won- Common loons spend the summer on a wilderness lake in the far North, where they raise their young. As fall approaches,they head south where they will spend the winter. This is when we see these ex- pert divers living on small fish and shell- fish in our bays and Sound. more has it - t the woolly r caterpillal predict the der there are so many bushes of bit- tersweet spread throughout the coun- tryside. The birds spread the seeds through their droppings. As we drove along the causeway we had the good fortune to see ducks diving and popping up just a short distance from the road. It was a simple thing to reach for my binoculars, whist are kept in the compartment built into the car door. Now I could check out the ducks without even getting out of the car. There were adult and imma- ture surf scoters, one handsome old - squaw, two horned grebes and a lone common loon. I would like to suggest that if you don't have a pair of binoculars now, treat yourself for Christ- mas and get a pair. Years ago a good pair of binocu- lars (800) would be in the hundreds of dollars; today you can get a pair of good binoculars for around $30. Once you get familiar with them, you'll find a whole new world opens up to you. Speaking of a whole new world opening up to you, have you heard about the interest in butterflies? We all know or have heard about bird watchers, those characters like myself who get pleasure in watching birds — well, there's a group that does the same thing but with butterflies. There always has been an active group that specializes in field trips but until lately they were a relatively small group. Today there's a renewerd interest in looking for butterflies and the pure joy of just watching them. Here again, a pair of binoculars adds a whole new dimension to the outdoors.