Worm Moon!!!!

[flhiker]

WORM MOON: Tonight's full Moon has a special name--the Worm Moon. It signals the coming of northern spring, a thawing of the soil, and the first stirrings of earthworms in long-dormant gardens. Step outside tonight and behold the wakening landscape. "Worm moonlight" is prettier than it sounds.

[playtime8978]

great information I will be looking out see if we can see the moon but is forecast to be cloudy, I wonder if the blackbird we get down will be feasting in the morning. thank you for the info.

[isurus79]

lol Ive never heard of such a thing! I learn something new everyday. Thanks Dave!

[Ethan]

A pointless fact about earthworms:

They are not native to North America. They were brought over by accident from the first pilgrim settlers from Europe. It's amazing how something so beneficial to us isn't even supposed to be here!

[kavanaru]

I think I need to disagree with Ethan. There are several species of Earthworms, and some ofthem are for sure native of USA, as well as you also have some others natives fron central and southamerica... It is indeed possible that some species have been brought by accident by the first pilgrims, or afterwards with imported plants, but for sure there have been earthworms in the USA even before Columbus arrived to America...

[kavanaru]

just checked in google and found in wikipedia that about 2 thirds of all species of earthworms in the USA are natives from this country...

[Ethan]

Well don't I just feel embarrassed... I obviously knew there were tons of species of worms, but I didn't know there were so many species of the nightcrawler earthworm...

I got this trivia from a National Geographic article I read a couple years ago, so my memory was apparently a little foggy.

Anyway, the point the article was trying to make was that the pilgrims introduced the common night crawler to hardwood forests of New England and the Upper Midwest that had no native earth worms. Certain species of plants relied on plant debris that littered the floor with no earthworms to break it down...and then they came along and blah blah blah...

Here's the link to the article if anyone is interested: America, Found and Lost - National Geographic - May 2007

Thanks for the info, Ramon!!!

[kavanaru]

hehe, nothing to feel embarrased about... most people ignored even the most obvious things, which are then normally given for granted... but if you think that most people ignore that Neozoones like Starlings (all USA), Myna (Hawaii), House Sparrows (USA and Europe) are notnative of the mentionned regions... well.. worms is nothing most people know about...

[Ethan]

UGH! Don't even get me started on starlings and sparrows!! Two of the most obnoxious non-native introductions EVER!!! They eat all my bird seed and chase my favorite little chikadees away!!!

[snow]

thanks dave for reminding us that spring is not very far off. even for us northerners