WINTER WONDERS

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Look carefully, and you'll discover that the coldest season is a great time to explore nature.

By Terry Krautwurst

Tracks in the snow, glistening icicles, a deer nibbling on low branches??these are only a few of the many pleasures of winter exploring. But if you look and listen just a bit more closely, youll also discover that the frozen world is full of less-than-obvious natural wonders that most of us dont see simply because we dont take the time. Here are some examples.

A Touch of Velvet

Standing in stoic defiance of icy temperatures that would flash freeze most other fungi, the tawny-capped winter mushroom, Flammulina

velutipes, fruits in the dead of winter even in the most northern states, giving heart to winter-weary shroom hunters who are in search of something??anything??to put in their gathering baskets.

Also called the velvet foot mushroom for its soft, fuzzy base, this is the wild version of the commercially cultivated enoki mushroom. Enokis, however, are grown in sawdust in the dark, resulting in light-starved mushrooms with long, thin stems and tiny caps that look more like bean sprouts than fungi. Wild winter mushrooms have thick stems and wide, fleshy caps.

Watch for these hardy survivors standing in little clusters at the feet of elms and other woodland trees. But unless youre an expert, dont even think about eating them??theyre easily confused with an aptly named look-alike, the deadly galerina.

Hoot Suitors

At dusk, if you think you hear the soft cooing of a mourning dove, listen again more carefully. It may be the similar-sounding but distinctive hoo-hoo hooooo hoo-hoo of a great horned owl.

Known as the feathered tiger of the air, great horned owls are ferocious predators of anything and everything they can get their talons on??from beetles, frogs and fish to rabbits, raccoons, porcupines and domestic cats.

But starting in December, great horned owls turn their attention to mating and fill the evening air with come-hither hoots and other vocalizations. If youre lucky, you might spy a pair flirting at twilight in a courtship ritual that includes spreading their wings, bowing their heads and clicking their beaks. By late January in most areas, females sit silently atop eggs??a pair, usually??that will hatch a month later, in time for the young to mature enough to feed on springs fresh supply of infant animals. Look for great horned owls in the abandoned stick nests of crows or hawks.

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