Signs of Spring Update: January 31, 2003 Today's Report Includes: Welcome Frozen Dinners! First Course--Fruit: Challenge Question #2 Second Course--Insects: Challenge Question #3 What to Drink with Dinner? Welcome to Journey North 2003! Thank you for joining us this spring as track spring's journey across the Northern Hemisphere. This is the first of our daily migration and spring updates with which we'll usher in the season, from February until June. Please come to the Web site and share the many signs of spring from your corner of the world! Frozen Dinners! Copyright by Ann Cook Have you ever eaten a frozen pizza or TV dinner? Somebody probably put it in the oven first. Imagine trying to eat a frozen pizza while it was still frozen! It would be both cold and hard. Now imagine you're a chickadee or a robin spending your winter in the far north. You can't cook your meals. How would you survive? Read on and you will see! First Course--Fruit: Challenge Question #2 In winter, robins eat a lot of frozen fruit. They prefer fruits small enough to swallow whole, such as mountain ash and other berries and small crabapples. Think about some reasons why robins prefer small fruits. Then answer Challenge Question #2: Challenge Question #2: "Why do you think robins might prefer eating small berries to big chunks of other fruits? Give at least two reasons." (To respond to this question, please follow the instructions below.) Second Course--Insects: Challenge Question #3 Whether it's summer or winter, birds appreciate protein. When the upper ground is snow-covered and frozen, it's hard to dig for worms. How might birds get protein in winter? One of the best sources is insects. But how can there possibly be enough bugs to eat in the frozen north in the middle of winter? Where are the insects? Do they hibernate? where do they hide? What would it feel like to be an insect or other cold-blooded creature in coldest winter? Let's find out! Check out our Frozen Insects Lesson, and then come back and answer Challenge Question #3! Frozen Insects Lesson Challenge Question #3: "If insects can produce enough antifreeze in their tissues to stay alive and even active when the temperature is below freezing, why is it still hard for them to lead normal lives?" (To respond to this question, please follow the instructions below.) What to Drink with Dinner? Even in the coldest winter, animals need water to survive. Birds are luckier than mammals, because most birds don't waste as much water as mammals. Mammals lose more water than birds by breathing out lots of steam, sometimes losing water in sweat, and excreting a lot of water in their urine. So birds are better than mammals at conserving water. But if birds don't waste a lot of water, they still need to drink some, even during deep freezes. How do birds get water? See if you can list five sources--and one big danger! Winter Water How to Respond to Today's Challenge Question: IMPORTANT: Answer only ONE question in each e-mail message. 1. Address an e-mail message to: jn-challenge-spring@learner.org 2. In the Subject Line of your message write: Challenge Question #2 OR Challenge Question #3. 3. In the body of your message, give your answer to ONE of the questions above. The Next Signs of Spring Update Will Be Posted on February 7, 2003. Copyright 2003 Journey North. All Rights Reserved. Please send all questions, comments, and suggestions to our feedback form