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Phenology with local naturalist Larry Weber every Friday morning at 8:20 on Northland Morning.

Backyard Almanac: not June-uary, but more light, lotsa snow, and skunks!

mwms1916/Flickr

It troubles Larry Weber that people call them "snowfleas."

Were they actually fleas, they would be "snow fleas," but they're not fleas; they're collembolans or springtails.

Actually, they're hexapods; they're not even insects.

(You can indulge your curiosity about them here)

Aside from that, we have fairly normal temperatures for January (although our overnight lows next week will be closer to usual daytime highs), we have plenty of snow,  and in dark warm dens throughout the Northland ... it's getting to be time for infant bears!

Credit Mike Vaughan/Virginia Dept. of Game and Inland Fisheries
An infant black bear weighs between four and eight ounces at birth

Infant black bears are about the size of a stick of butter - or a Sharpie.  Read the rest of the article about black bears here.

And to find out more about bears in our neck of the woods, check out the information and bear cams at the North American Bear Center.

Lisa Johnson started her broadcast career anchoring the television news at her high school and spinning country music at KWWK/KOLM Radio in Rochester, Minnesota. She was a reporter and news anchor at KTHI in Fargo, ND (not to mention the host of a children's program called "Lisa's Lane") and a radio reporter and anchor in Moorhead, Bismarck, Wahpeton and Fergus Falls.Since 1991, she has hosted Northland Morning on KUMD. One of the best parts of her job includes "paying it forward" by mentoring upcoming journalists and broadcasters on the student news team that helps produce Northland Morning. She also loves introducing the different people she meets in her job to one another, helping to forge new "community connections" and partnerships.Lisa has amassed a book collection weighing over two tons, and she enjoys reading, photography, volunteering with Animal Allies Humane Society and fantasizing about farmland. She goes to bed at 8pm, long before her daughter, two cats, or three dogs.
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