Earth Almanac: October/December 2003

Silk Purses

When autumn dies, so do the beautiful black-and-yellow orb weavers whose dew-spangled webs stretched across garden paths and meadow grass just about everywhere in the contiguous 48 states. But during winter young garden spiders hatch in sacks that may contain as many as 1,400 eggs. They molt inside, then emerge in spring, crawling off or flying away on silk parachutes thrown to the wind. Look for the pear-shaped, inch-long paperlike sacks hanging from tall weed and grass stems, especially in locations where you've seen webs.

Snow Bunnies

As the days dwindle down, the fur of the snowshoe hare goes white, but unlike the pelage of other mammals—including, alas, us—it will become brown again in spring. If a hare goes white before the snow falls, it's in big trouble, because amid bare hardwoods or black conifers it stands out like phosphorus in a night sea. The snowshoe part of its name derives from large, splayed hind feet that allow it to travel easily over snow. Throughout its range—from Alaska, across most of Canada and our northern states, and down the spines of the Rockies and the Alleghenies—few prey species are more abundant or subject to wilder population swings. In good hare years predators such as owls, foxes, fishers, and lynx thrive. But as hares proliferate, they deplete their bark-and-twig food supplies, triggering a population crash that soon extends to their major predators.