Winter is a dormant period for many animals, but it's a busy time for Nature Museum staffers. This winter, we are working with teachers and administrators to bring hands-on science into our local schools; we are applying for grants to support our work; we are bringing a new season of nature programs to preschoolers and homeschoolers; and we are preparing for a year-long series of programs for adults and families on the topic of water.

In the sidebar, you'll find all our programs for December, January, and February, including our February school vacation camps for ages 3-11.

Give your sweetie a sweetshrub! Give winterberry for the winter holidays! Plan now to plant native dogwood, serviceberry, fringetree, and fothergilla this spring.

This month marks the start of The Nature Museum's Native Tree and Shrub Sale. Order  through March 15, 2013, for pickup in the spring. If you'd like to give a holiday or birthday gift of a tree or shrub, we'll provide a gift card with planting and growing instructions--just let us know! Six selections will be available this year. Prices for 2013 haven't been made available to us yet, but we will post prices as soon as we have them. In the meantime, you can visit our website to view our plant selections and begin planning for spring.

All proceeds from the Native Tree and Shrub Sale support The Nature Museum's school and community nature programs. The deadline for ordering trees and shrubs is March 15, 2013.

Water unites us all--people, plants and animals. This vital resource is the theme for The Nature Museum's 2013 Nature in the Community programs. Connecting the Drops will be a series of  presentations and hands-on workshops about water in its various forms. These programs will enlighten participants on a variety of topics, from polar ice caps to the ice cubes in our drinking water. This winter, spring, and summer, The Nature Museum will work with town libraries, community gardens, and  environmental organizations to present these enriching experiences.

On Thursday, February 7, at 7:00 p.m., at the Rockingham Free Public Library, atmospheric scientist Dr. Alan K. Betts will present a free talk on the effects of climate change in Vermont. How is climate change affecting our water systems? How can Vermonters adapt to our changing climate? How can we bring our local perspective to the global community? Dr. Betts has lived in Vermont for more than 30 years and recently produced a report on climate change in Vermont for the Vermont Agency of Natural Resources.  

 

On Saturday, February 9, from 9:00 a.m. to noon, expert wildlife tracker George Leoniak will lead a hands-on workshop titled "Animal Tracks and Trails: Reading the Stories They Tell." A 45-minute talk at the Museum will be followed by a two-hour snowshoe hike in Howeville, where we will practice the art of wildlife tracking and discover clues about the changing subnivean zone. Prices and registration for this event will be available on our website in January. Enrollment will be limited to 15 people. George teaches Field Mammology at Antioch University New England and holds numerous tracking certificates. 

 

Spring rains will bring a rain barrel workshop, a presentation on weather prediction, and a spring ephemeral hike led by Tom Wessels of Antioch University.

   

Summer will be all about rivers, sustainable fish hatcheries, and a fly fishing jamboree in Bellows Falls.

 

This series of programs is funded in part by a grant from TransCanada Corporation, the owner of the hydroelectric dam in Bellows Falls, Vermont, and of the fish ladder there. TransCanada also funds The Nature Museum's staffing of the Bellows Falls Fish Ladder Visitor Center during the summer months. 

   

Click here to return to the top of the page.

"Under the microscope, I found that snowflakes were miracles of beauty; and it seemed a shame that this beauty should not be seen and appreciated by others. Every crystal was a masterpiece of design and no one design was ever repeated. When a snowflake melted, that design was forever lost. Just that much beauty was gone, without leaving any record behind."           

--Wilson "Snowflake" Bentley, 1925

 

We have all marveled at the fact that "no two snowflakes are alike." But did you know that this discovery was made by a native of Jericho, Vermont? Wilson "Snowflake" Bentley was a self-educated farmer who became very well known for his photomicrography, most notably his extensive work with snow crystals.  

 

Bentley was able to capture these fleeting beauties by adapting a microscope to a bellows camera. After many years of trial and error, Bentley became the first person to photograph a single snow crystal, in 1885. By the time of his death in 1931, his collection of snowflake photomicrographs numbered over 5,000.  

 

One of Bentley's main areas of research was on how different snowflakes formed. He hypothesized that the change in form seen in a single crystal reflected the changes in the temperature of the air through which the crystal fell on its journey to the ground. Bentley was years ahead of the meteorological thinking of his time. Thirty years would pass before this topic would be studied and considered again.  

 

Bentley's photographs also paved the way for snowflake classification. In 1951, the International Commission on Snow and Ice produced a fairly simple and widely used classification system for snowflakes. This system defines the seven principal snow crystal types: plates, stellar crystals, columns, needles, spatial dendrites, capped columns, and irregular forms.  

 

To these they latter added three additional types of frozen precipitation: graupel, ice pellets, and hail. Each of these snowflake formations are determined by the air temperature and available water vapor that the flake experiences on its descent to earth.

Now that you know a little snowflake history and science, I encourage you to make your own snowflake catcher out of a black piece of felt and cardboard. Glue the felt and cardboard together, let them dry, then stash them in the freezer. Then, the next time it snows, grab your snowflake catcher, a magnifier, and your camera, and see if you can reproduce some of Snowflake Bentley's famous pictures.  

 

If you want to learn more about Wilson Bentley, visit the Jericho Historical Society's Bentley Exhibit, or check out their website. Now let's just hope for a snowy winter!

 

 Click here to return to the top of the page.   

 

Winter is a season of wonders. One phenomenon that inspired me to further investigate was seeing sundogs last year in a bright winter morning sky. Sometimes just knowing a bit more about something makes me stop, pay attention, and appreciate the world I live in even more.   

 

Sundogs are the icy relatives to rainbows. Also known as parhelia, from the ancient Greek meaning "beside the sun," sundogs appear as one or two bright spots on the sides of and parallel to the sun.  

 

Ice crystals are the secret to the creation of sundogs. Plate-shaped hexagonal ice crystals drift down through the atmosphere like falling leaves. These simple crystals are perfect hexagons with no projections and therefore do not interlock with other crystals. Sunlight reflects off or refracts around these ice surfaces.  

 

The crystals must be tilted at just the right angle for the light to enter our eye. This prismatic effect creates bands or sun-like spots of color in the sky. Occasionally, these "mock suns" are located on a well-defined ring called a halo which can encircle the sun.  

Once the sun reaches an angle of 45 degrees, though, the prismatic angle is skewed so that we can no longer view the sundogs. It is best, therefore, to look for sundogs in the morning or afternoon when the sun is at its lowest.

Although sundogs and halos can be seen in all seasons, the cold weather of winter is more conducive to the formation of cirrus and cirrostratus clouds, which are best for obtaining just the right angle to create these fascinating sky optics. The process is simple, but the effect is spectacular. On those cold, clear winter days heading our way, let's all look forward and look up for signs of a wondrous natural light show right outside our door.         

Click here to return to the top of the page.

Our annual Fairy House Tour at the end of September brought over 300 people to the Museum to view amazing fairy houses in the woods and then build their own fairy houses in our gardens. All proceeds from the Fairy House Tour support Nature Museum school and community nature programs. If you missed this year's Fairy House Tour, you can check out the photos online--and mark your calendar for the last weekend of September 2013!

Fairies on a merry-go-round. Photo by Wayne LeFevre.

Thanks to the many local families, school groups, nonprofits, and businesses who built fairy houses for our tour. This year's Tour featured a record 35 houses, including a fairy tavern, horse stable, movie theater, performing arts center, and many more.

We'd like to thank our sponsors for this event, The Windham Foundation, Cota & Cota, Jamie Gregory Trucking & Excavating, and the Law Offices of Salmon & Nostrand. Special thanks to The Windham Foundation for their ongoing support of the cultural, social, artistic, and recreational vitality of the Grafton area. Thanks to Apron Strings Cafe in Springfield for their delicious soups and amazing fairy-themed baked goods. Thanks also go out to Rushton Farms, the Grafton Parent Teacher Group, the GMUHS National Honor Society, Best Septic, Green Mountain Tent Rentals, photographer Wayne LeFevre, and the many volunteers who make this event possible.

Click here to return to the top of the page.