By Elaine Sugawara for the January 24, 2024 issue of Now in Nature.
It’s January. Looking out of my back door the last few days, I haven’t seen much. It has been so bitterly cold but today, the weather is much warmer. The birds were making such a ruckus that I went outside to investigate. What sounded like a thousand sparrows were enjoying the warmish air too.
As I stood in the sunshine, I looked up, noticing the big red maple tree in my neighbor's yard. This tree must be at least 40 feet tall and several feet in diameter. The birds like to swing by my bird feeder, grab a sunflower seed, then fly up to the safety of this tree, but that’s not what caught my attention today.
The twigs all have buds—so many buds. The leaves are gone now, but that tree has plans! Big plans to make more leaves and more flowers.
I wondered, why the buds are showing now—why aren’t they freezing? It seems the tree is pretty smart. It forms the buds in the fall when it has enough resources like food and light. During the winter, the tree reduces the water inside the bud, in order for the bud not to freeze. Brilliant!
In Ohio, you can start seeing buds in late January or early February. Now I know why I noticed them. The buds are much bigger than they were in December.
