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Follow the Leader!
JANUARY 7 | By IRVINE NATURALIST SARA MILLS
 One of my favorite birds has always been the chickadee. Carolina, black-capped, mountain, you name it; I can’t help but chuckle at their acrobatic tricks and seemingly boisterous temperament.
These tiny creatures are quite the leaders, especially during these winter months. As one walks through the forest during these cold times you may notice the stillness and silence, until you come across a winter feeding flock! From out of nowhere you may be surrounded by chickadees, nuthatches, creepers, small woodpeckers and tufted titmice. These large groups of birds are essentially feeding guilds. Chickadees and titmice tend to be the leaders of these groups, and the followers are usually the woodpeckers, nuthatches and creepers.
Why would a bird be so peace-loving during a time when food is not easily found? Although there are several theories, some are more obvious than others. More birds means more eyes, and more eyes can find more food and more predators.
There is a lot more to the story, as any avid birder will explain, such as an unpleasant attitude towards other chickadee flocks, and a hierarchy within the group. Specifics aside, we can learn a little something from the chickadee…when times are tough put your differences aside, and don’t underestimate the smallest of creatures! |
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A Winter Wonder: the Cardinal!
DECEMBER 7 | By Guest Writer Intern Madeline Mahon
 ‘Tis the season!
There’s nothing better than the sights, sounds and smells of winter: the constant smell of pine trees, carolers, fancy lights and more. But you take the good with the bad, and sadly, winter also means not getting to enjoy some of nature’s finest creatures: birds that have migrated.
But not to fear! The northern cardinal sticks around for us during the winter.
This strikingly beautiful songbird remains in our area year round instead of migrating like many other northern birds. Cardinals prefer woodlands, fields, suburbs and gardens. Sound like where you live?
Though they typically feed on insects like grasshoppers, flies and beetles, cardinals will also eat sunflower seeds. They are pickier in the summer when there is an abundance of food and less so in the winter when resources are scarce.
You have the best chance of spotting these red beauties either at dawn or dusk.
Cardinals love the woodlands as well as backyard bird feeders, so be sure to leave your feeders out, even if it’s cold!
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Horseshoe Crabs at Irvine!
NOVEMBER 7 | By Guest Writer Intern Madeline Mahon
 Irvine's youngsters in the Nature Preschool are currently working on raising baby horseshoe crabs right in their classroom. Though the natural habitat of horsehoe crabs is ocean waters with muddy and sandy bottoms, the animal adopts well to new settings, especially habitats as nice as Irvine’s.
The Atlantic horseshoe crab, like all other horseshoe crabs, in fact is not a crab but is closely related to scorpions and other arachnids. Though difficult to understand this looking at this creature from above, after flipping it over and viewing it from below it is quite understandable.
Parts of a Horseshoe Crab
- 1 hard shell: protects entire body
- 9 eyes: two large compound eyes and five simple eyes on the shell, and two simple eyes on underside in front of mout
- 5 pairs of legs!
- 1 long hard tail: strong enough to set them back to normal if they get flipped over. A damaged tail makes it very susceptible to predators.
- 5 sets of ‘book’ gills: allow crabs to breathe underwater and out of water if kept moist. They also occasionally aid in swimming.
Horseshoe crabs can swim upside down at times, and feed on mollusks, worms and other small sea creatures on the sea floor.
The crabs start out very small (a female can lay as many as 120,000 eggs at once). They grow to be large, however, shedding their shells up to 17 times before full maturity at age nine. They can live from 20-40 years. |
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