Spring and early fall seasons at Irvine are bustling with animal activity. They are great times to hit the trails if you want to see a wide variety of animal life. Now, winter is coming, so what is there left?
Winter offers a tremendous opportunity to look for the treasure trove of objects hidden from view in the other three seasons. It does not take long until you will see what you had been missing during summer camp or as you hiked the trails when it was 70 degrees and sunny. The leaves are gone, the sun stays low, and animal hideaways glow in the beams of light.
You may not know what everything you encounter is evidence of, and that’s OK. Part of the fun is trying to figure out what the natural object even is! At Irvine, you can always ask a Naturalist if you are stumped.
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- In the spring, birds will build their nest in an area that will be overgrown by vines, leaves, or other cover. They can be hard to spot, but when foliage dies back in the fall, you may start to realize just how many birds nest here!
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- A gall is a deformity on a plant stem or leaf often caused by an insect. Entire families of wasps and flies lay their eggs in plants causing a gall to form. Their larva grows up in the safety of the hard gall.
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- This yellow warbler nest, identified by the cottony plant material lining the nest and its proximity to our wetlands, was well hidden all summer, but is revealed in the winter.
More information on galls.
A great resource for identifying bird nests.
