February is National Bird Feeding Month. To celebrate, each Monday, NPC will post information on some of the more “popular” backyard birds. Thank you to Charlie for writing the posts, and providing the photos.

Feeding birds is a popular winter activity for many people – and birds too. And one of the most popular birds is the black-capped chickadee, which some people call “the little boy of the woods” for their constant motion and apparent joie di vivre. Black-capped chickadees are found from southern Pennsylvania to the northern limit of trees in Canada and frequent a multitude of habitats from old growth forests to reverting brushy fields. They nest in tree cavities, old woodpecker holes and in nest boxes; they spend winter nights in similar locations. It has been reported that chickadees have about two hours to find food each morning before lack of nourishment proves fatal. At feeders they prefer sunflower seeds but will also eat corn, suet and peanut butter; they frequently cache surplus food for use later. Remarkably, their brains actually produce new cells and grow by about 30% in fall so they can remember all those cache sites (up to 100,000) and then shrink in the spring.

For more information visit the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, National Geographic, and Birdzilla.  You can view maps of the Black-capped chickadees habitat, listen to the bird’s song, and view more photos and identification points.

Today seems like the perfect day to think about the role snow and forests in our water cycle. Forests are super at taking melting snow and slowly incorporating that water into our underground aquifers.

The forests do this through the soil. The soil on the forest floor is kind of like a great, big sponge. It can soak up a lot of the melting snow and let it filter down to the underground aquifers.

The soil in a forest is less likely to be compacted than the soil in your yard or the local park. By being “fluffier” (that’s not the technical term) the forest soil can soak up more water because there’s more space in the soil.

The snow pack on top of the soil acts as insulation, allowing the soil to remain unfrozen and open to soaking up snow all winter long. This is a good thing. When the trees and other plants are active they pull up water through their roots and less water can get down to the underground aquifers. When the trees and plants are dormant, the water bypasses the tree roots and plans, and is allowed to make its way to our underground aquifers.

These aquifers are where people with wells, not on a municipal water system, get water for their homes. It’s also were many of the streams, rivers, and lakes get water throughout the year. Water from these underground aquifers slowly release water throughout the year, allowing Pennsylvania’s waterways to keep water even during the driest summer. Another bonus of groundwater aquifer water entering our local streams and waterways is it’s cooler. In the summer this cool water helps a lot of fish and other aquatic creatures survive by keeping the water temperatures down in streams and rivers.

Bryan Swistock with Penn State Extension wrote a great article about this. You can read Bryan’s article here.