Phenology for February: A Reminder Today's Reminder Includes: How the Season is Changing >> Outdoor Observations for February: Draw What You See >> What's Happening to the Sunlight? >> Phenology Resources to Explore >> What clues can you find? >> Photo: Dave Mansell How the Season is Changing Still steeped in winter? If you look and listen closely, you'll discover all kinds of seasonal changes. Here are some things that far-flung Journey North observers reported this past month: hooting owls advertising territories, singing frogs, feeding flocks of red-winged blackbirds, melting pond ice, tulip leaves poking through soil, swelling buds at the tips of tree branches, and tiny hopping insects. What clues tell you that the season in your hometown is changing? Each month, we'll remind you to go outside and look, smell, feel, and listen. Pay special attention to what's happening to the sun and length of day. These are at the root of all other seasonal events! Warming weather brings out plants and insects that feed on them. Both provide meals for migrating birds! Photo: Graham Matthews Outdoor Observations for February: Draw What You See Photo: Tom Grey When you make your February observations — and fill in one of the checklists — try adding a new twist. As you look carefully at how living things change, choose at least one thing to draw (an adopted tree, section of the garden, or resting bird, for instance). Here are some tips: Try to draw what you see rather how you think something should look. Look at colors, shapes, behaviors, numbers, and the surrounding habitat. After drawing an object, move closer so you look at just a small area up close. How do you "see" differently when you do this? What new questions or discoveries do you have? Ask, How do I predict this will look next month? What's Happening to the Sunlight? Are you tracking sunrise and sunset times, daylength, or shadows in your hometown? What have you noticed? Some important things have changed since the last update. Imagine you're in space looking at Earth on the morning of February 1. Here's what you'd see >> How is sunlight changing? >> Phenology Resources to Explore Spring Checklist: Grades K-3 >> Spring Checklist: Grades 4+ >> Student Journal: Signs of Spring >> Photo: What clues can you find? >> Signs of Spring: You can post your observations on one of our migration maps or the "other signs of spring" map. Share: Exchange Observations with a Partner! >> Observation: How is sunlight changing? >> Tool: Sunrise/Sunset Tables >> Teachers: Phenology and Journey North >> Keep observations, drawings, and checklists in easy-to-print Signs of Spring journals. Phenology for March: A reminder will be posted on March 1, 2008

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