Astronomy
Wednesday, February 12th is the Full Snow Moon. Hmmmmmm……..bet you can guess how it got its name! Look for Venus in the evening sky, brilliant at -4.8 magnitude. “Magnitude” is a measure of the brightness of an object, usually a star or a planet, as viewed from Earth. The lower the magnitude, the brighter the object. Venus this month is about as bright as anything gets! But there are two more planets easily visible in the winter night skies. The planets Jupiter and Mars are both out for much of the night. Jupiter rises and sets before Mars, but it’s up until after midnight. This month Jupiter is the brighter of the two, at magnitude -2, while Mars is at -1 magnitude and has a reddish tinge.
February 2nd is Groundhog’s Day. The groundhogs here in Minnesota don’t typically emerge until late March, so don’t spend a lot of time looking for them. They spend the winters alone in their burrows, where their body temperature falls as low as 38 degrees – in the summer it’s more typically about 100! And they take a breath only every six minutes as their heart rate slows to about five percent of normal.
Groundhog’s Day and the corresponding Christian holiday of Candelmas come in early February as they are at the same time as one of the four cross-quarter days. Cross quarter days come half-way between the solstice and equinox, and were marked on astronomical calendars devised by early people who paid attention to the length of daylight and progression of stars through the night skies throughout the year. The February Cross-Quarter Day lies about halfway between the Winter Solstice in December and the Spring Equinox in March, and signals that Spring is coming! In the diagram you’ll notice that the Earth is pretty close to the Sun at the Winter Solstice and on the February Cross-Quarter day; more about that later in the year.
Birds
Bald eagles that spend their summers farther north fly south as far as necessary to find open water. Some years they find that open water on the St. Croix near Afton, and you may see them fishing off the ice. You might also see wild turkeys at Afton. And while it’s a myth that Benjamin Franklin argued for the turkey, and not the eagle, to be our national bird, he did express admiration for the turkey, writing that, relative to the eagle, “[The turkey is] a much more respectable Bird, and withal a true original Native of America…He is besides, though a little vain and silly, a Bird of Courage.” Look for turkey tracks in fresh snow or in the mud. The tracks in the photo show the imprint of one small hind toe, and three large front toes.
Mammals
Winter snow cover gives us a chance to practice identifying the tracks of many of the mammals at Afton. Eastern cottontail rabbits have hind feet that are about three inches long, and sometimes when they are hopping from place to place the front feet land together in a single track. At this time of year rabbits come out of their hiding places after sunset to eat bark and twigs.
Most of the small tracks in the snow are from mice or voles, and sometimes there are tail marks between the feet.
Both gray and red squirrels leave tracks in which you can see both the pad of the feet and the toes, sometimes with the claw marks showing. Squirrel tracks often run from one tree to another.
Deer leave heart-shaped hoof prints, and often will follow the same trails through the woods and fields. Those trails are called . . . deer trails!
Fishers are large members of the weasel family. Look for their tracks near the water. They have big pads and five toes. The tracks can look like the tracks of house cats.
Raccoons and Opossums are not true hibernators, but are active on mild days. Check out the photo of an Opossum under the bird feeder at the Visitor Center, taken in January 2008. The tracks of Raccoons and Opossums are sometimes difficult for me to tell apart. If there’s a tail drag mark, or a toe print on the hind foot that slants inward, it’s an Opossum.
Insects and arthropods
Bees and fleas? In winter? On mild days in winter bees may leave their hives or overwintering shelters (most bees are solitary and solitary bees don’t live in hives) and take what are called “cleansing flights”. Bees are notorious for keeping their hives and nests clean, and warm sunny days in winter give them a chance to fly outside and. . . poop!
And on those same mild days you might see what look like flecks of black pepper hopping around on the melting snow. It’s not pepper, but an animal called the “snow flea”. Snow fleas aren’t really fleas, and they aren’t even insects. They’re arthropods, a group that includes spiders and crustaceans. Snow fleas are a type of springtail, and live in the leaf litter of the forest. They become active when the temperature goes above about 27°. I still don’t have a photo of them, but maybe this winter I’ll get one!
Weather observations
Here are some weather observations from the Afton State Park area from past years.
| Friday, January 31 | 2024: record high 55°; 2019: clear and 20° below zero in the morning |
| 2024: sunny and mild, low 50s; 2022: Gusty winds through the day, with the temperature falling from 30° into the single digits; 2019: end of a 78-hour stretch of below zero temperatures; 2004: record snowfall of 6.7” | |
| Sunday, February 2 | 2016: record snowfall of 8.82” |
| Monday, February 3 | 2023: very cold all day, near zero; 2019: above freezing overnight |
| Tuesday, February 4 | 2021: about 4 inches of snow; 2005: record high of 51° |
| Wednesday, February 5 | 2022: blustery winds, temperature rising from single digits into 20s; 2015: below zero; 2005: record high of 51° |
| Thursday, February 6 | 2022: record high of 57° after frosty start to day; 2023: sunny in the morning, then mixed precipitation making sidewalks icy; 2019: 4 inches of fluffy snow |
| Friday, February 7 | 2024: gray and in the 50s with wind from the east; 2019: record snowfall of 5.9 inches that started as freezing rain |
| Saturday, February 8 | 2024: 2024: record high of 53° with rain off and on through day; 2023: sunny in the 40s, with lots of snow melting; 2022: high in the low 40s, first time in the 40s in 2022; 2021: 10° below zero to start the day |
| Sunday, February 9 | 2024: clouds and flurried in the morning, 30s; 2010: snow continuing from previous day, about 6 inches total |
| Monday, February 10 | 2022: temperature in the 20s, with lots of birdsong; 2021: temperature in the single digits; 2019: record snowfall of 5.9 inches |
| Tuesday, February 11 | 2022: freezing rain and snow in the morning, with temperatures falling into the teens in the afternoon; 2019: 20s in the morning |
| Wednesday, February 12 | 2024: sunny, 30s; 2021: high near zero; 2019: record snowfall of 5.5 inches |
| Thursday, February 13 | 2022: light snow in the evening, high temperature in the teens; 2017: sunny with a high near 50° |
Photo/Image credits:
All photos copyright Nina Manzi, except:
- Keith Henjum: Raccoon
- Bill Marchel, MN Conservation Volunteer: single Deer track, Deer, Gray Squirrel
- Alan C. Nelson, Dembinsky Photo Associates, MN Conservation Volunteer: Harvest Mouse
- Linda Radimecky: Fisher tracks
- Gary Sater: Full Moon, second Bald Eagle
- Zosh Tanner for Friends of the Mississippi River: Ligated Furrow Bee, Silky Striped Sweat Bee
- John Watson trail camera: Fisher
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