Eye on nature

7 November 2022
 
With the last week’s downpours (not to mention the forecast for political storms ahead), it’s hard not to feel like staying in bed and hibernating until the sun rises again. But to do that would mean missing a very active season of transitions, movements, and arrivals in our natural world.
 
As the snow level drops, some birds, like Varied Thrush, are pushed into the valley. Last week, our intrepid F240 ecology students [Natural Resources Ecology] watched a flock of these beautiful relatives of robins join their cousins on the lawns of campus. Even the robins were probably passing through, visitors from the north, perhaps the Yukon or the slopes of Denali. Just one of many transitive treasures waiting for us if we dress warmly and venture outside.
 
Fisheries students brought news of other travelers – salmon had made it up into Beaver Creek! With some luck and the timely recharging of the stream, their extraordinary efforts may be rewarded with successful spawning. Their return to campus is only possible because of changes to the culvert running under Stark Street, proof that we can reverse some of the degradation our species delivers when we fail to see our connection and dependence on what is wild. 
 
The recent rains triggered still more renewals and, again, our students were firsthand witnesses. BI 211 [Biology] professor, Catherine Creech, on her morning campus perambulation found a beautiful porcini, which she shared with her budding biologists (image below!). What we see is the fruiting body of a vast, but hidden individual, showing a small part of itself to surface dwellers only when conditions are right. Like so much in nature, what we see is only a taste of what is there – a reality that can inspire us all to look longer, pause more, and explore our wet and wild world!
 
with an eye on nature,
 
Wally Shriner

Biology instructor at MHCC