Tuning In and Keeping Track: An Introduction to Phenology

Can you recall the last morning that wasn't filled with birdsong? Do you remember when you first noticed the buds emerging on maple trees in your neighborhood? Which day in April did your ears perk up to hear the spring peepers? When was the very first snowfall last year?

If you find yourself noticing, contemplating, and wondering about the subtle shifts and patterns in seasonal happenings, phenology is your friend. There is comfort in marking time and tuning into our natural environment, especially in turbulent times like these, and phenology can offer a great way to do so. 

Phenology is a fancy term that means the study of cycles and seasonal natural events. The word is built of two parts: "pheno" (phaino in Greek), which means "to show, to bring to light, to make to appear" and "-logy" of the root "logos," which means "study, discourse, or reasoning." It was first used in a public lecture in Brussels by Belgian botanist Charles François Antoine Morren in 1849.

However, phenological understandings have been fundamental to the human relationship with the land and environment. Indigenous peoples have used phenological knowledge in cultural, agricultural, and ecological practices for thousands of years. Here in Wisconsin, the College of Menominee Nation has recently created a Phenology Learning Path to honor the ways the Menominee have used nature's calendar to mark time and continue to track climate change impacts. 

In other locations, large scale changes over time have been tracked like in the Royal Meteorological Society's project that spanned 58 years of tracking of temperature and flowering events across the British Isles via 600 individual collectors from 1891-1948. Currently there are several networks collecting data via mostly volunteers in many countries, contributing to the understanding of climate change. The USA National Phenology Network (USA-NPN) maintains a database of observations collected by over 5,000 people who logged information on over 20,000 organisms and over 15,000 plants in 2020. It's fascinating to scroll through the lists of top animals and plants observed, and other information collected like initial growth in plants and migrating behavior. This information is referred to as phenophase data. For folks who enjoy diving deeply into data and data visualizations, this website has an amazing data visualization tool. 

For those of us who might appreciate a less formal approach, phenology in your own local habitat can be greatly rewarding. It can also be a fun activity to do with children. Start small and manageable, and you might be surprised at where this activity will take you in observing natural phenomena.

Here are some ideas to get started:

1. Choose something to observe that's personally interesting and readily available. It could be a bird species that visits your yard, a favorite tree, or a corner of the park with plants.

2. Set a plan to observe at least once a week. Daily would be ideal, but weekly observations will give you a great view of changes.

3. Find out a little more about the thing(s) you have chosen to observe. Species identification is a great first step, and if you can't figure it out by an internet search, reach out to a local naturalist as they love answering questions and sharing information.

4. Create a space to log your observations. This could be a file on your computer or phone, a simple notebook, or a blank calendar square. 5-year journals are easy to create using a template like this and a sturdy 2-inch, 3-ring binder. Since this calendar is organized by day, by the end of 5 years it allows users to see at a glance what was happening on that same date each year. 

5. Record your observations and some details about the weather or other important conditions you notice like time of day, activities around your focused area, and any changes you notice. If you have time or the ability to photograph or sketch your observation, this can add to your record.

6. Consider joining with others to share observations. The Nature's Notebook website hosted by the USA-NPN has several campaigns including monitoring bats, pollinators, and pests. Individual data is personally meaningful, but sharing it as a citizen scientist has the potential to create a volume of data that is relevant in tracking change over time. 

Aldo Leopold, widely considered to be the Father of wildlife ecology, was an avid phenologist. The Aldo Leopold Foundation creates a phenology calendar every year. Visit their resources more information about the 2021 calendar and the role that Leopold himself played in promoting phenology as a way of connecting with our environment. 

We are all phenologists to varying degrees in our own lives, noticing subtle changes across time in ourselves and in our environment. In a time where so much has changed and shifted in sudden ways, tuning our focus to the rhythms and patterns of the natural world can offer a steadying respite. The simple practices of phenology might provide new, welcoming, and interesting insights in the year ahead.