What to See This Week

It has been a while since I’ve caught a red-bellied woodpecker visiting the Bird Watching Garden. Aside from downy woodpeckers, red-bellied woodpeckers are some of the most common woodpeckers in our area. Pictured here is a male, distinguished by the full red cap. 

A female red-bellied woodpecker also stopped by the Bird Watching Garden. Their red belly may be one of the last things you notice about them, but you can just barely make out the red coloration on this bird’s belly! 

Northern mockingbirds are always exciting to see in the Bird Watching Garden. They are often seen going for the peanuts, suet, or even just to get a drink of water. They are hard to miss as they are quite large compared to a lot of the other birds in the garden and are known for their assertive nature. They can also be spotted on Holly Hill feeding on holly fruits.

Did you know you can still get poison ivy in the winter? All parts of the plant contain urushiol oil, the cause of the reaction. Luckily it isn’t too hard to identify, especially with a larger vine. The bigger vines are covered in aerial roots, structures that help attach the vine to surfaces they are growing on, and give poison ivy vine its distinctive hairy appearance. 

Evening primrose is one of several species of prairie plant with recognizable seed heads that persist through the winter. Evening primrose consists of split open golden-tan capsules.

At the Red Barn Reserve listen for the birds! January is not necessarily the time you would expect to hear birdsong, but this little song sparrow was very busy singing this morning. Like many other birds, song sparrow songs vary a bit depending on where you are within their expansive range, kind of like having their own dialects. 

One of the best parts about snow at The Arboretum is the animal tracks! While we don’t always see the animals that live at The Arboretum, the tracks they leave behind in the snow give a great indication of how much traffic certain areas get. Pictured here are tons of crisscrossing bird tracks at Holly Hill, likely from small ground feeding birds like sparrows and juncos. 

The white pines at the Red Barn Reserve is also a great place to spot some animal tracks. Pictured here are squirrel tracks! They are like rabbit tracks in general shape and size, but rabbit tracks make more of a “Y” shape whereas the squirrel is more of a “W” shape. There were also tiny tracks from small rodents and plenty of deer tracks. Be sure to keep an eye out for tracks in the next snow!