Gatherers looking to catch trout on caddis flies, basket a bunch of morels, or find fawns and leave them rest, could be improved by connecting phenology.
Biologists, and others, define phenology as cyclic and seasonal natural phenomena, often as it relates to climate. Plants, fish, mammals, insects and fungi flower, feed, reproduce, appear, migrate, and fruit, often as set times.
Some things in nature are difficult to find, so knowing when to look can improve chances of finding a motherlode of wild asparagus, morel fruiting bodies, or knowing when to put out the oriole and hummingbird feeders.
Morel mushroom-looking is a timely example.
This can be tricky but some successful fungi sages have noticed in past years, a peony was in flower, or lilacs were beginning to fade, or wild currants were being visited by bumblebees. At the same time, they found morels beginning to come up. The next year, that same person may simply watch the peony plant and not waste time searching for morels before a peony blooms.
This can be tricky, too, because this fungus, while perennial, lives but a few years under a recently deceased white elm. It could be that noticing a peony and then checking that elm no longer works because morels are no longer growing in that location.
A more direct example is noticing lone hen turkeys feeding; suggesting this bird and others are nesting, maybe not incubating but laying eggs. Gobblers are likely to be more alone, too, and more receptive to artificial hens and box calls.
With more experience comes shortcuts. “Years ago I tried those things with nature when I went trout fishing,” said Brett Schultz, of Black Earth. I keyed in a peony blooming, strawberries ripening, and other things but now I’ve fished the same waters so many times I key in with the 15th of each month for different hatches.”
There’s a tiny mayfly hatch, Brett says, in mid-March and a caddis hatch in mid-April. “Sometimes those are off a few days one way or another on the water I fish, but I’ll catch them the next time out,” he says, “which is likely to be the next day.”
Right now fishing is pretty good, Brett says, and even on raw days some fish are still anticipating what’s coming and are out looking for that hatch.”
“The weather, of late, has not been good,” said Don Martin, of Martin’s in Monroe. “Turkey hunters have said they haven’t seen many birds, but it could be the weather there, too, and the excitement just isn’t there yet.”
Guys have asked Don about morels, though, but no one has reported any.
“Some fishing equipment and terminal stuff have come in, but it seems no one is excited about trout, either, not yet anyway. Again, it’s the weather,” Don says.
Doug Williams, at D W Sports Center in Portage used lilacs blooming for striped bass biting, and three days above 55 degrees for morels.
“The guys who have gone out are seeing birds and some are getting cold and some are bagging a bird, too.”
Doug reports an ethical hunter who called a bird within eight yards but was on the other side of a fence, on posted land, so he let the bird walk.
“The nobs on the ends of antlers are noticeable now,” Doug said.
A warden in another county was working on a case of a bird shot illegally, from the road, and the possibly other violations, too.
Wayne Smith uses lilacs for finding morels and has heard of “when oak leaves are the size of a squirrel’s ear” as being the time to gather morels, or at least look.
Wayne also beats the poor conditions and populations by remaining positive, hunting harder and being more persistent. He couches his bet by buying a bonus permit for later in the season in case nothing works early on.
Orioles are beginning to come to grape jelly, the cheapest kind, and citrus halves. Can hummingbirds be far behind?
Certain cup fungi and false morels precede true morels, says Brent Drake, at Tall Tales in Boscobel.
One turkey hunter shared a happening last year when he saw a male hummer appearing to swing like a pendulum back and forth, while a female bird remained perched and watched. It turns out this was a mating ritual, according to several bird books.
As interesting as the red latex in bloodroot stems, rhizomes and leaves can be to some, it’s recognizing that the numerous white petals play the sun, or its lack on cloudy days, that amazes many naturalists.
The plant closes before nightfall, but also on cloudy, cool days, and why not? Pollinators can be lazy when the sun is waning. No point in advertising pollen by a spread of petals if the bees are not flying.
Plants, as well as the bees, seem to conserve their energy.
These pollinators know a thing or two about phenology, it seems.
— Jerry Davis is an Argyle native and a freelance writer who lives in Barneveld. He can be reached at sivadjam@mhtc.net or at 608-924-1112.
