Winter Ecology

On this beautifully sunny, mild winter day, I am reflecting on a very special experience I recently had. This past winter break, I signed up for a course entitled Winter Ecology. Bernd Heinrich, renowned biologist, book author, and UVM professor emeritus teaches the course on his property in Western Maine. For one week, ten UVM students (a mixture of undergraduates and graduates) lived in a log cabin without electricity or running water, and only heated by a wood stove, which we took turns getting up to stoke every couple of hours throughout the night. Every morning, we would rise as the sun rose over the mountains and illuminated the frost-covered windows. Bundled in many, many layers, we visited with one another quietly as water boiled for oatmeal. After breakfast, we rambled through the woods with Bernd with several hours, each day visiting different areas. Bernd teaches in the same way he learns--from the land itself, without plans, letting his daily discoveries dictate his curiosities. He has been learning from this one particular piece of land for many, many years, and it made me think quite a bit about what an honor it would be to know one place so well. Some of the highlights included using an axe to chop through the thick ice of Alder Brook and sampling benthic macroinvertebrates (this also turned into my individual research project for the class); finding nests from the Red-eyed Vireo, Chestnut-sided Warbler, Cedar Waxwing, and Robin; watching Bernd chop down trees and climb trees; making homemade bread in the wood stove; listening to a visiting scientist discuss her research on chickadees; and hiking to a lookout over Webb Lake to enjoy the sunset. I loved learning from and also teaching the graduate students, and I thought it was really valuable to have people from so many different academic backgrounds in the course. After cooking a hearty meal for dinner, we sat around the large table and pored through Bernd's collection of field guides and reference books. It was refreshing to be in a group of people so motivated to get outside and learn, even in the face of -24 degree temperatures!

Check out these photos, which help illustrate the nature and structure of the course, and also how much fun we had! 

Bernd climbing a tree to retrieve a red-eyed vireo nest.

The resident barred owl waits for a snack offering.

Sunrise through the frosty cabin windows.

View looking up into the center cavity of an old yellow birch.

Balsam Fir vs. Spruce

Exploring every sense of winter--in this case, the aroma of a spruce tree.

Red-eyed vireo nest painstakingly procured by Bernd.

Moving a chopped ice chunk out of the water in or

Sampling for benthic macroinvertebrates along Alder Brook.

Stoneflies, mayflies, and dragonfly nymphs galore!

A single bit axe, sled, water jug, and hearty souls--all tools of the trade for water runs. 

A sunny, frozen crystalline view of Alder Brook, looking downstream.