Lunar Sidereal and Synodic Periods. The Moon's sidereal orbital period (the sidereal month) is ~27.3 days; this is the time interval that the Moon takes to orbit 360Â° around the Earth relative to the fixed stars. The period of the lunar phases (the synodic month), e.g. the full moon to full moon period, is longer at ~29.5 days.
While there are several species of marmots in North America, our woodchuck is found mostly in the eastern United States and across much of southern Canada. In New England, woodchucks inhabit both urban and suburban yards, fields, meadows, woodland clearings, and we see them frequently in grassy areas along highways.
Marmots are large rodents and are vegetarian in nature. They eat grasses and forbs and live amongst the boulder fields of mountain meadows. If you are hiking through a marmot meadow you will often here a loud whistle. This is the marmotâs warning call to other marmots that there may be a predator about. This type of altruism where an individual gives away itâs location in order to help others of its species is uncommon in the wild and shows the deeply imbedded Dudeist nature of these critters.