Ants are cold-blooded. Cold blood is the crudest form of thermoregulation: heat is not produced internally, but comes from the sun.
Morning is a hard time for a cold-blooded animal. I remember the feel in my hands of lizards afflicted with the rigor of morning cold. Metablolism and blood flow crawls, stopping the muscles. One early Spring morning, flip rocks in the grass: you will find a bonanza of petrified life.
A still animal is easy prey, and a still animal is a weak laborer. Ants — especially ants close to the equator — build their nests on the southeast faces of hills to maximize absorption of morning sunlight in the Fall and Winter.
Spiderwebs are not built against the wind.
The force of a bee hitting an orb-web full speed is akin to a passenger jet hitting a tennis net.
The web is saved from constant destruction by the shape of the fibers: they're aerodynamic. Bee hits the web. The fibers recoil, catching air, like a parachute. Bee hits both the web and a cushion of air exploited by the shape of the spider's tiny spinnaretes.
A web is hours' labor. A gust of wind comes along — oop — no more web. Oh well.
Spiders are smart. Spider webs are not built against the wind.
Look at trees in open areas: they're uneven.
Wind carries friction. Wind carries sand and rocks. Sand and rocks and friction break a tree's small new branches. Attrition makes the canopy lopsided. The leeward side grows more. The leeward side points in the direction of wind over time.
Sand in the desert and ice in the tundra are the same: they're polished by the wind.
So what good does wind do you?
In temperate regions, the wind usually blows from the West.
In the tropics, winds oscillate between northeast and southeast.
Wind moves east along the Equator.
In the Northern Hemisphere, trust the skin on your arms and legs, and the pull of tiny hairs: wind from the North is colder than wind from the South.
The men who built Stonehenge pried the great rocks out of the mountains by thermal expansion. They poured water in the cracks during the day in winter; at night, the water froze and expanded, forcing the rocks out.
Ice erodes more than wind. Frost erosion is more evident on the south side of a rock or a hill because of the greater temperature shifts.
Trees on the south sides of hills keep snow in their shadows. In March, you can make a snow angel in the shadow of a tree.
Moss and lichen shun the traditions of most vegetation: they grow in the shade.
The sky can reflect the earth.
Clouds over a city absorb the pollution of electric light. Even if a city is on the other side of a mountain, it can be seen at night from thirty miles away. Neon never made you happier.
In the desert, the sky is cloudless. Waves of heat distort light air and light. The air shimmers with the warmth reflected by the sand. Uniform surfaces reflect more light: vegetation is less uniform than sand. Desert air over vegetation doesn't shimmer.
The movement of the planets and the stars is exact. Astronomy is a science.
Draw a line through the points of the moon's arc leading to the ground: South is where the line lands.
Find the big dipper. Draw a line up through the two stars making up the front edge of the bowl: it will run into Polaris. North.
Sources
Tawrell, Paul. "Camping & Wilderness Survival: The Ultimate Outdoors Book." Tawrell: Ontario. 1996.
ABC, Great Moments in Science
http://www.abc.net.au/science/k2/moments/s37273.htm
The Other Hawai'i
http://http://the.honoluluadvertiser.com/hokulea/stories/051104
Gather 'Round the Stove
http://www.muzzleloadermag.com/HINTS%20(stoves)/Other%20Suggestions.htm
Weathering and Erosion
http://www.scarborough.k12.me.us/high/projects/geoscience4/sbergg/erosion.htm