Warblers are those tiny and sometimes brightly colored feathered missiles you see zooming from tree branch to weedy stalks during the winter months in Southwest Florida.

Where did our use of plants for the holidays come from, and why do we use them?

An autumnal holiday tradition — the pumpkin — is a true native of the New World. The gourd was put to many good uses by Native Americans and assimilated into other cultures as they came here. Dr. Jerry Jackson takes a look at our native produce which includes corn and three species of wild rice.

Wild Turkeys have the word “wild” in their name to distinguish them from the birds that have been domesticated for centuries and bred for their meat and feathers. Florida is one of the prime native homes for Wild Turkeys although they now occur in almost every state as a result of introductions and other conservation efforts. They also occur naturally well into Latin America – where the first domesticated turkeys were found by early explorers and taken back to Europe. There were so few that they were not regularly eaten, but kept for special occasions – such as our Thanksgiving and other holidays. Wild Turkeys are related to pheasants, quails, and yes, even jungle fowl (the wild ancestors of our chickens). Males are easily distinguished from females by the black tips of breast and back feathers on males and brown to buff tips of the same feathers of females. Males are also generally larger than females. Males have spurs on their back of their legs; females only occasionally have spurs.

“Phenology” is a term that refers to the timing of events in nature. Understanding phenology provides us with answers to such questions as: “When does this bird nest?” “When does a plant bloom in our area?” “When does this bird molt?” What competitors, predators, or habitat characteristics might influence when a species is present or successful? The obviously repeated word here is “when”, but phenology also incorporates the question “Why does this timing occur?” The answers to the “Why?” are diverse – sometimes referring to day length, seasonal weather patterns, the presence or absence of predators or competitors, the age, physical characteristics or spatial distribution of plants in a habitat, or diverse seasonal energy demands on the subject of our interest. In short, the key to understanding “phenology” is to understand the physical and biological complexity of the world in which a species lives and the impacts of that complexity on the life of the creature we are focusing on.

Killdeer are plovers that are prominent among shorebirds because of their broad use of habitats in addition to our shore areas. Any place that is open, with short vegetation and usually with a bit of gravel can provide nesting and feeding areas for Killdeer. This even includes rooftops. Although summer heat can be deadly for them, Killdeer will shade their eggs to keep them at an appropriate incubation temperature and often soak their body feathers in water to drip on eggs or chicks. Chicks from rooftop nests can survive jumping from the roof or sliding down rain gutters. Downy chicks have only one neck band; adults have two.

Every holiday has its back-story and a bit of history – many also have associations with the wild things around us. Halloween is a holiday rich in lore of wild things – such as bats and spiders --and domesticated plants and animals such as pumpkins, rutabagas, and black cats. Rutabagas? Learn the connection as this week’s Wild Things celebrates those wild and not so wild connections in the lore and history of Halloween.

Our Black and Turkey vultures are common sights in Florida skies.An adult Black Vulture on the left and a juvenile on the right. Note the black colors, the wrinkled head of the adult, and the tiny feathers and lack of wrinkles on the head of the juvenile.

Orb-weaving spiders are those spiders that create webs in which flying or falling insects are captured. Many, such as the Banded Garden Spider, the Golden-silk Orb-weaver, and the tiny Orchard Spider are active during the day, some, such as the Tropical Orb Weaver are primarily active at night. Most create a new web each day. If you have a wooded area, you can often go out shortly after dark with a flashlight and find Tropical Orb-weavers as they begin to create their web for the evening. By morning the web is gone and the Tropical Orb-weaver is in hiding among dense vegetation.

Echolocation is second nature to animals such as bats and dolphins. Can humans also find their way using sound as a tool?