The Herons have fully embraced our snowy January during Forest School (and during PE, too!) We began with a rousing bucket brigade to make wood piles in sub-zero temperatures (thanks, Roehls, for the wood!) We also got all of the cross country ski stuff organized for the season and were rewarded by being the first on the slopes to the North of school (thanks, Mr. Dilly, for permission to use your field!) We've been trying to find mink tracks in the creek – but no luck! The creek is iced completely over and the drifts have filled in the creek bed.
We've also begun preparing for spring phenology. All fall we were recording "the last" of everything. Now we're beginning to notice "the first" (for example, we've heard the first fee-bee call of the chickadee). But the first signs of spring will be pretty subtle on the trees we've been studying since the fall. To observe their changes, we need to train ourselves to recognize such phenophases as bud burst and leaf out. We collected twenty different twig samples two weeks ago and have been measuring and observing the buds on our samples since then. Our elm twig had burst into pollination after just a week inside and on Friday we had our first leaf out! I use the exclamation point with purpose – it is amazing how exciting small changes can be when you are watching for them. This, I think, is one of the benefits of this year's work in phenology. The Herons are watching and seeing more than ever.
Measuring our twigs:
The Rookery 
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