December #phenology, Home Range

Aldo Leopold's shack is one state east and not very far south of us. A Sand County Almanac's chapter on December focuses on chickadees (one of our favorites) rabbits, deer and pines. All are native to the North Country. All have home ranges of varying sizes.

chickadee at December feeder

Photo by J. Harrington

The Solstice Season can be a very good time to think about what home range means to us humans. Our home ranges are highly variable. According to those who study such things, humans' original home range was the African continent. Christians honor and celebrate the birth of Christ at this time of year. Mary and Joseph were far from their home at the time of birth. Is home where we were born?

Yr obt svt's  original home range was New England, particularly Massachusetts' South Shore and Cape Cod, although we were born in Boston, much of our growing up occurred South of there. Is home where we grow up?

For many years now, we've been raising our children in Minnesota. They're native Minnesotans, we're not. We're naturalized Minnesotans. We're still working on what it takes to make our adopted state home. We have a home here, but is home where we live?

Years ago, we came across and read the book, The Heart of All That Is: Reflections on Home. A pair of native Minnesotans, Paul Gruchow and Jim Brandenburg collaborated to produce a Minnesota masterpiece: Minnesota, Images of Home, published in a limited edition by the Blandin Foundation.

Phenology can be a wonderful way to learn your home range, wherever you happen to be. The pileated woodpecker, who we almost never see in the Summer, just flew from the suet feeder. Chickadees, nuthatches, woodpeckers and blue jays provide entertainment during the Winter months. December is the only month when many homes have a real tree in the living room.

in December, we welcome a tree into our home

Photo by J. Harrington

Range can refer to area or space. It also includes daily temperature, seasonal temperature, precipitation, and activities, or lack of them. Bears are denned up but will soon have cubs being born.
How soon will great horned owls start mating, or have they already?

                     Home Fire

By Linda Parsons Marion

Whether on the boulevard or gravel backroad,

I do not easily raise my hand to those who toss

up theirs in anonymous hello, merely to say

“I’m passing this way.” Once out of shyness, now

reluctance to tip my hand, I admire the shrubbery

instead. I’ve learned where the lines are drawn

and keep the privet well trimmed. I left one house

with toys on the floor for another with quiet rugs

and a bed where the moon comes in. I’ve thrown

myself at men in black turtlenecks only to find

that home is best after all. Home where I sit

in the glider, knowing it needs oil, like my own

rusty joints. Where I coax blackberry to dogwood

and winter to harvest, where my table is clothed

in light. Home where I walk out on the thin page

of night, without waving or giving myself away,

and return with my words burning like fire in the grate. 

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