Wild Church!

I heard about it on the radio. 

Many of us have written about forest bathing, but this guy was a Wild Church leader. There is a Wild Church network, as well. It is basically the same thing, only you have a leader to tell you what to look for, and how to find God! And, yes, there is a book about it!

"The Wild Church Network is here to encourage and support people who are starting Wild Churches. The Church of the Wild book offers inspiration for those who feel the call from Spirit and Earth herself to create a spiritual community that reconnects us to the rest of the alive and sacred world."

I'm not part of organized religion anymore. Between my social anxiety, and COVID, I am happier toodling around in the forest by myself. That's just me! Numbers are going up, poor Isabelle, has to stay home as the school is having trouble getting teachers. A restaurant in Ottawa had to close temporarily due to staff absences. 

Tuesday the outdoors called me. Cinnamon was exhausted looking for his squirrel friends. We've 3 red squirrels and two black ones.

Outside, I spotted a cricket, awake after sleeping through the cold winter. A sign of spring!

Even though we've snow, the sun is warm and wonderful.

I took myself down to the meadow. As I walked across it to check out the dock, I sunk down into the water under the snow. It was a bit of a shock, and I screamed with the surprise after I sunk down. You'll have to imagine it. I snickered afterwards.

I looked down, and found a lot of meltwater under the snow cover.

The frogpond is melting on the shore line, where the trees reflect and/or retain the heat. I saw something move in the water, too. I'm not sure what it was, maybe a bullfrog tadpole? They spend two years as a tadpole, unlike other frogs. 

This is for reference, the water is quite high at the end of the dock, with lots of melt water on top. 

Speaking of frogs, we are getting set to do the Western Chorus Frog surveys again. They cancelled it last year, but we are excited about it. I was sent my 4 locations, and mapped them, but I am sceptical about a couple of them. Here is where they have observed them. 

🍃veggies grow

Back at the house, my squash, pumpkins and zucchini are coming along. I did begin too early, but I needed the distraction.

In this photo, I managed to capture some buds on the orchid cactus.

I moved the trailcam, as it can no longer sit in the snow, and the ground is frozen. I have 75 videos of Butch raccoon to process! 

These are from Wednesday, after even more snow melt.

By today, after 20 mm rain, things are opening up.

And, the crows are still frequent flyers. We'll see if they nest in the yard, again.

crows March 18 from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.

Incidents, rain, subnivean zone

The March OPP report tells of a wolf hit by a vehicle. I've been doing a graph (🚓LOCAL COLLISIONS). It amuses me, and keep up my Excel skills, such as they are. I'm still having some trouble with it! 



I've been preparing this piece and with the recent rains, I figured it might be time to post it, even though our snow is still around. First, the precipitation...

Normally, remember 'normal,' we'd have a nice snow cover to protect the flora and fauna. In spring, it melts and the trails show themselves. (The Latin is for you, JB!)

The subnivean zone is the area between the surface of the ground and the bottom of the snowpack. The word subnivean comes from the Latin “sub” (under) and “nives” (snow). Mice, voles, and shrews retreat here for protection from cold temperatures, bitter winds, and hungry predators. Food is right at hand: grass, leaves, bark, seeds, and insects are free and unfrozen.  Under the snow, these tiny mammals create long tunnel systems complete with air shafts to the surface above. [Read more...]

Once the temperature rises, you can see the tunnels in the snow.



How do wildlife cope outside in the lingering cold during the winter months? 

This Subnivean zone protect critters from the cold and predators. Some predators need the snow cover: voles, deer mice, weasels, ermines.

deer mice in the bird seed 

This is a great example. Here is the sidewalk, with the bird feeder directly above the hole on the lower left!

The red squirrel loves to dig holes, and pop out when and where it is safe.

Daisy sat, watched and listened for a long time, until she plucked this vole out of the snow.

Then, there are the mouse tunnels, previously under the snow, exposed to the elements.