It was 13 degrees F. below zero at dawn today and the wood
stove heat in the study never felt more welcome. Late January
surely is living up to its usual reputation of the coldest
weather of the year, and the forecast for the early part of
February doesn’t look much better.
The month of February surely has its share of weather sayings
and proverbs, such as "February is short, its discomforts
long." I’ve heard it described as the famine month of the
year, and the "Hunger Moon" coincides with this month
too.
An old weather proverb states, "Warm October, cold
February." Just for the fun of it I checked my October 2003
weather records and must admit that the month was on the warm
side. It was 38 on the first, a monarch butterfly was seen on
the 8th, the temperature rose to 59 on the
9th, 41 on the 15th, 58 at noon of the 20th
and 40 degrees on the 30th.
Mark my word, old "white-jowled winter" will do
plenty of raving and roaring before February has had its final
say! At least one can rest assured that spring marches northward
at around 13 miles per day, so eventually it will arrive.
In reviewing my 1994 nature records, of ten years ago, I find
that the month had the typical highs and lows of February. It
began at 15 below zero, was ten below on the 10th, 19
above on St. Valentine’s Day, brought rain on the 19th
at 39 degrees and was back down to one degree above zero on the
26th.
Now that such a wonderful layer of snow blankets the ground,
bird activity at many feeders tends to pick up. Weed seeds and
cornfields lie buried and those birds that depended upon this
food are suddenly forced to look elsewhere for sustenance. Quite
often some bird species are attracted to handouts of food by the
actions of other birds. Mourning doves, crows, blue jays, and
especially the big flocks of flighty goldfinches are included in
this group of birds watched by others.
A few years ago we were surprised when over 50 mallards landed
in our driveway near the house and proceeded to feast on the
cracked corn there, something that had never happened here in
previous years. We later learned from wildlife expert, Tom
Erdman at UWGB, that mallards often follow crows simply because
crows are so good at finding food. Yes, crows often come to eat
the cracked corn and also pick up small bits of gravel on our
driveway within 75 feet of the house.
When I say that the deep snow is bringing more birds to
feeders, I must also include the natural predators. Included are
the northern goshawk, Cooper’s and sharp-shinned hawks, and the
northern shrike. Yesterday our bird class was just finishing up
for the day at around 2:45 when one of the students looked out
the south window of our classroom and immediately called out a
strange bird she saw perched on the very tip of one of the
eastern white cedars growing within 15 feet of the house. It
turned out to be a northern shrike that posed like a statute for
the next several minutes while the class enjoyed an incredibly
close look at what perhaps was the first time that some had ever
seen this species.
The sharp-shinned and Cooper’s hawks have been here, on and
off, since last fall, here one day and absent the next. There
have been fewer and fewer occurrences of them since the snow and
cold weather arrived.
A snow cover can also lure owls such as the screech and barred
to your feeding area at night. Bear in mind that mice are also
attracted to the birdseed that falls to the ground and it’s these
rodents, feeding during the cover of darkness, that the owls are
after.
If you live in a woods that is bordered by fields along whose
edges grow common milkweed plants, check the bulb-like galls on
the stiff stems for holes made by birds in search of the
goldenrod fly larvae. If the hole is very roundish and neat it
most likely was made by a downy woodpecker. In case the
opening into the center of the gall is very ragged-appearing and
cone-shaped, the bird that did this work was undoubtedly a
black-capped chickadee. Both of these species relish the fat
juicy grubs during a hard winter.
Several times in recent winters I’ve been looking out one of
the north windows of our house and have seen goldfinches and tree
sparrows at work in our butterfly garden. I purposely do not
clean out the dead stalks and seed heads of any of the plants,
especially those of the purple coneflowers, simply because
eventually they become very attractive seed-providers to some of
the wintering birds.
Very often you can expect two birds to begin their courtship
singing on mild late February days, the chickadee and cardinal.
What a joy it is to see a male cardinal, perched high in a nearby
tree singing his heart out with his unmistakable, piercing,
sharp-whistled "CHEEerr, CHEEerr."
The well-known "CHICK-a-dee-dee" call of the
black-capped chickadee that you’ve been hearing all winter, come
that magical sunny, warm, late February day suddenly changes to
the sweet, far-reaching "FEEE-bee-bee," as the male
chickadee tries to woo a female.
Regardless of the challenges of weather in the North Country,
each month brings its own peculiar wonders and joys. Short in
length as February is, every one of the 29 days this year will
have its own gifts of interest.
Now that most natural food sources are covered by
snow, the blue jays are forced to find food at our feeders.
This column appeared in the Door County Advocate
on 02/03/2004.
© Copyright 2004 Roy Lukes. All rights reserved.
