Fall 2020 Updates: Week 8 - The Fall Finale!

[upbeat guitar] Welcome to the final week of our Shenandoah National Park Fall 2020 video series! I’m Ranger Scott. And I’m Ranger Alyssa. Make sure that you stay tuned after our segment to see some of the pictures that our photographer has been taking during this final week of our fall updates. And also, we have our Chronolog project. We have been so excited to see all the amazing pictures that you guys have been taking right here at Pass Mountain throughout the whole eight weeks that we’ve had this Chronolog, and we’ve been doing these videos, and so check out these awesome pictures that you guys have been taking. Thank you to everyone that participated. These are awesome. And then for our recap of our fall pictures you can check out our website and social media pages. You can get all the dates and locations of those pictures, too, so you know what to expect next year if you want to visit and come find those fall colors that you’re really searching for.

And 00:54 - our peak check, our final peak check for the fall. You can see behind us at Neighbor Mountain, you can see that in those higher elevations there’s not as many leaves as the lower elevations. As you travel down that mountain, you can still see some oranges and reds, at least from where we’re standing, so that’s going to be true for some of the overlooks that you’re going to be stopping at on Skyline Drive. You’re going to be seeing the same thing, so you still have those really expansive views. You’re going to have great hiking weather. Make sure that you bring layers, because it is getting a little bit cooler, and, I mean, wildlife: they’re out and about.

They’re 01:31 - doing their winter thing, preparing for winter, so there’s still so much to look forward to when you visit Shenandoah. Definitely. It’s my favorite season to hike in the fall, weather like this. And, just like you said, you have the beautiful views, and the weather is usually pretty nice. We do have some rain coming this week and this weekend, so just be sure to check the weather before you come, and, you know, the weather varies. It’s a hundred miles of Skyline Drive, so there’s different weather at the north versus the south. So just make sure you check it.

01:59 - It’s been pretty dry last week, um, and so dry in, fact. Yeah, this weekend we did experience a small fire here at Pass Mountain. It’s still under investigation, so, just because it has been so dry, that we really ask you guys to make sure that when you’re up here, to recreate responsibly. And then, I guess, there’s rain coming, so there is a light at the end of the tunnel for that, so maybe this week we don’t have to worry about it so much, but just in the upcoming weeks, especially during the fall, um, to make sure that you guys are staying safe. And making sure last week about fire safety: things like cigarette butts, or especially if you’re actually building a fire to cook with, you always want to make sure that you can extinguish it completely, and never throw cigarette butts out anywhere. Yep, absolutely.

So we also, last week we’re talking 02:47 - about astronomy and the things that are coming up in the night sky here in Shenandoah National Park, where the night skies are truly amazing. We talked about how Mercury and Venus are visible before sunrise and how it’s sunset, just after the sun sets, you can see Jupiter and Saturn. All the cool planets are out right now, as well as Mars is out at sunset. That’s the other one. So the new moon, that’s when the moon is completely dark at night, is November 15th. That’s on Sunday. And on the 16th, on Monday, is the peak of the Leonids meteor storm, or meteor shower.

03:23 - That’s a very famous, um, one of the most famous, I think second only to the Perseids, in August, meteor shower Abraham Lincoln famously saw in 1833. They have all these amazing wood cuttings I was showing you some before, where it’s just the entire sky is completely filled with, um, with meteors coming into the atmosphere. They said it was a nine hour shower and there were over 200 000 meteors in those nine hours. Wow, how cool to see that. And it’s coming. It’s not going to be that powerful…it peaked in 1833, it peaked in 1966, the next peak is expected in the year 2030, so keep your fingers crossed. Maybe in 2020 is a good time to start that new tradition of coming up and checking out a meteor shower.

And, like we said, Monday and Tuesday 04:13 - this coming week, on the 16th and 17th, is a good time to do that. Awesome, thanks for giving this update. My star spiel. There you go. All right guys, so we’re going to hand it over to Evan Childress, and he is going to tell us what animals are going to do in the winter. Hi, I’m Evan Childress. I’m a biologist here at Shenandoah National Park, and I’m going to talk today about what the animals are doing as they get ready for winter. I’m still wearing a t-shirt here today, but it is starting to get colder, particularly at night, and the animals are changing their behavior, so, um, one of the classic things that we think about in the fall is the geese flying south. Um, a lot of animals, in particular birds, do just get away from it.

Um, it gets too cold and they they head for warmer climes. So, whether that’s, uh, geese, or warblers, or other songbirds, dragonflies. Actually, many dragonfly species will migrate, monarch butterflies. So, many of these, these species just try to get out of here, because it’s getting too cold. The other options are to escape underground so we’re into other places that might be a little warmer.

So, some species that do that are bears, um, are 05:28 - another classic example of a, um, animal seeking shelter in a cave or, um, in Shenandoah National Park it’s often a hollow tree. Large, hollow trees are the primary denning, uh, options for bears here and, actually, you know, bears, black bears and Shenandoah aren’t quite as quiet in the winter as you might think. Uh, we think that bears hibernate in general, but black bears, uh, actually go into more of a deep sleep and will emerge if it gets warm in the winter and come out and walk around, maybe look for a little something to eat. The ones that really stay in the dens are the pregnant mothers, so they really need to hunker down and make sure that they’re staying quiet for the winter. So, um, so, who else is taking shelter in the winter? So, one, uh, pretty interesting and slightly disturbing, uh, option is for the snakes.

So, 06:33 - snakes, like rattlesnakes and garter snakes, will retreat underground, and because there are only a limited number of places where snakes can go, they’ll often group in large numbers. So you think, you know, Indiana Jones falling into a pit of snakes. It can be like that with rattlesnakes. Um, and garter snakes are are docile and, uh, and not nearly so scary, but they also group in impressive numbers. Your chances of actually falling into a snake pit here in Shenandoah are very slim. They’re more likely to be in sort of rock piles buried deep underneath, but there are large aggregations of snakes. Amphibians also retreat under the ground.

So, frogs and 07:24 - salamanders will go deep enough where they’re not getting frozen when it gets really cold. One of my favorite winter stories about animals is about wood frogs. So, they don’t, they don’t retreat. They essentially just say, you know, what, I’m gonna stay here and and just endure it. And what happens is they actually are able to, uh, create, uh, conditions within their body where the space… the water between their cells freezes solid, and the the cells, themselves, are concentrated with, with alcohol and sugars so that they don’t freeze.

But if you pick it up, 08:05 - um, if you find a wood frog, it’s just like an ice cube. Um, it’s frozen solid, um, and then they thaw out and their heart starts pumping again, and they’re able to hop off. But they, they essentially are just able to adjust their physiology to endure the freezing solid. And other insects…not other insects…insects do that as well. So caterpillars, like a woolly bear that you may be familiar with, they’re a black and rust-colored, little fuzzy caterpillar that you see everywhere here in the fall, they also just essentially freeze solid and are able to thaw out and start crawling around again. And here in Virginia, you know, we have relatively mild winters, and, so, on, on warmer winter days, species like that may be more active.

Let’s see, what else happens as the animals get ready for winters? So birds, though 08:57 - you know some of them do migrate away, but we do have many species that stay here for the winter, and one interesting thing that they do is they change who they associate with as it gets colder. So the, the small insect eating birds, like chickadees and nuthatches, downy woodpeckers, will be very solitary, or they’ll pair up and breed in the summertime, but as the winter comes, they group into large flocks of a bunch of different species. So, they’re all kind of working their way together through the forest, and we’re not exactly sure why they do this, but, you know, there are a couple of obvious hypotheses, um, like protection in numbers from predators…more eyes, you’re able to see the predators more quickly… and, then also, that, that just the movement of the other species may disrupt their food, insects, and dislodge them from somewhere so that it makes them more accessible.

So you may see groups of birds that are all different species moving around together. So I think that that about wraps up what I’m thinking about for, for animals as they get ready for winter. So, um, come out to Shenandoah and, and see if you can’t spot some of these things, though the ones to look for, in particular, are the, the birds that are above ground and still active, but you, you may see a bear wandering around, and if you do don’t be surprised, because they don’t always go to sleep for the whole winter. Thank you so much to Ranger Evan for that awesome video. We are excited, as well as the animals, to get ready for winter. There’s a lot of things that that means.

One of the things is that there’s going to be fewer crowds, but right 10:36 - now there are still a lot of crowds here in the Park. One way that you can avoid the crowds at the entrance stations: we still want to push you to recreation.gov. That is a fantastic website where you can get your pass online, and you can skip the lines of people that are paying on the weekends, especially. Those lines get pretty long, so go to recreation.gov and you can get your pass there and come right on into the Park. Yeah, so speaking of crowds, we’re still seeing quite a few people at Whiteoak and Old Rag, so make sure, if you can, to come during the week to hike those hikes.

11:08 - But if you do want a “plan b” hike on the weekend, if you did have plans to do Old Rag and Whiteoakl, you can go to our website, again. That’s right, our website: nps.gov/shen. There’s a great section there where you can go into “Plan Your Visit,” “Outdoor Activities,” “Hiking,” and you can find hikes laid out by whatever you need. You want to avoid crowds, do you want one that’s good for children, dogs, whatever you need. Yeah, it’s all right there on the website, so make sure you check it out. Yeah, and then, also, if you do bring your pet, make sure that it’s on a leash at all times on those hikes.

And then, winding down for, uh, the fall and heading into winter, 11:43 - some of our facilities have closed or are closing. You can find those operating hours on our website under “Plan Your Visit” and “Operating Hours.” Definitely. And there’s other reasons that things close down. Sometimes Skyline Drive will have to close down if we do get ice or snow here in the Park, and, so, you can check our social media or, as always, just give us a call at 540-999-3500, option one, option one. I love when you do that! I’m glad somebody does. All right, so guys there is always more to come this winter, so even though we’re winding down for the fall, we are not going away.

We want to share an experience with you in the winter in Shenandoah, 12:25 - because, you know, yeah, Mother Nature’s not done, she still has some of her best work in the colder months. So make sure you stick around. Full, expansive views, ice sculptures, sometimes, the soundscape is always great. The soundscape is always beautiful. Yeah, so make sure you come on and enjoy it with us! I’m Ranger Scott, and I’m Ranger Alyssa! Check out these beautiful pictures that have been taken around the Park this week. All right, bye! [upbeat music] .