At the nature center where I work, we have an Elmo. Unlike his Sesame Street namesake, Elmo is not an assuming presence. He’s a small machine, and rather gray. However, when you turn on the switch, Elmo turns kids on to nature. He’s a macroscope.
What is a macroscope? Like a hand lens, it magnifies objects that are hard to see with the naked eye. Like a microscope, it’s a machine to assist your eyes in seeing things that are not necessarily noticeable with your eyes. Our Elmo also projects items onto a screen, so worms look as large as hot dogs. Yum.
While you may not have an Elmo, you probably have access to a hand lens. Simple microscopes are easy to find and relatively inexpensive to purchase as well. With these tools, you’re all ready to magnify fall.
Why turn the lens on fall creatures and plants? Fall is the time when natural cycles of decomposition are most visible. Deciduous trees love their leaves, which fall to the forest floor. Animals like worms, millipedes and slugs eat these leaves, turning them into soil. The fruits of forest fungi pop up out of the ground, spreading their spores so that they can become more numerous. In the logs and the leaf litter, their root-like mycelia are composting the fallen leaves.
Other parts of the forest’s life are less visible in the fall and early winter. Birds are no longer singing their spring songs, although they call sometimes. Some animals migrate. Many animals are getting ready to hibernate. Some invertebrates lay eggs so that their babies will hatch in the early spring. Others hibernate too, making their way into the center of logs and burrowing deep into the soil.
Fall is a time when there is a lot going on, but it’s not always obvious. For humans, it’s a time when we feel like the earth is moving into slumber. This is the case, but getting ready for bed is quite an active time.
If you have a microscope or a hand lens, you can explore this quiet time of year.
Leaves are one of my favorite items to explore. They are numerous and covered with life. Place one under a lens and you will see tiny fungi on the leaves and little grubs munching them.
Pieces of damp wood and cones are marvelous places for animals to hide. Put them under the lens in a warm place, and you will see tiny creatures that begin to emerge from the crevices of the wood and cones. This is where they live for the winter. We like to call them bug apartment buildings.
Finally, take a look at a handful of soil. While it is tempting to think of soil as dull brown stuff that we walk on, it is as important as air to living things. It’s a home and a source of nutrients, and it’s also the place where nutrients go once they’ve finished their life inside a living thing. Look into a handful of soil and you’ll see pieces of rock, bits of leaves, and yes, lots of invertebrates too.
Image Credit: Lockheed