Door to Nature

The recent sub-zero Fahrenheit air temperatures, combined with wind-chill factors of forty degrees below zero Fahrenheit or lower, lead us to marvel at how wild birds and mammals survive this dangerous and treacherous weather. Other than going outdoors several times a day to feed the wildlife and walking out to the mailbox around 900 feet down the driveway, we remain indoors working, reading, studying, preparing food, and tending our kitchen wood range and the wood stove downstairs in our study which help to heat our house.

Should we accidentally allow the marvel meal feeder outdoors to go empty, one of the Hairy Woodpeckers flies to the wooden deck railing right in front of our south kitchen windows and hammers away, letting us know that their favorite food supply is gone. I have a habit of feeding the birds each morning, usually at sunrise before I have my breakfast. In case the weather is much colder and windier than normal I put out extra food several times during the day, especially a few handfuls of hulled sunflower seeds which don’t require as much energy to consume as do the hulled seeds.

Yesterday, a time of windy sub-zero weather, I went outdoors to scatter some seeds on our front patio where juncos and tree sparrows often come to find shelter from the icy blasts. Unknown to me, around a dozen or more Mourning Doves had been hunkered down among the dried leaves in the little alcove of the east retaining wall of our home, and naturally were off in a flash. There they were not only receiving good wind protection and some sunshine, but also much-needed grit from a bare patch of ground next to our hollyhock beds. Doves and other seed-eating birds must regularly replenish the grit in their gizzards which enables them to grind up and digest harder seeds.

Many people, including us, have noticed far fewer Blue jays here this winter. They are primarily mast eaters consisting of, for example, dried corn, beech nuts and acorns. Deep snow, especially when glazed over by the periodical mid-winter rains we’ve experienced, makes finding mast next to impossible. Wild turkeys are in the same predicament. Surely this harsh winter is going to bring about a reduction in their numbers which will not make quite a few of our friends, including us, too unhappy!

This barred owl was patiently waiting for a small rodent to arrive in search of seeds fallen from the bird feeders nearby. Photo by Roy Lukes.

We’ve seen far fewer mice and vole tracks in our woods and fields in recent weeks than in past winters, very likely due to the iced-over snow that reduces the amount of available oxygen for these rodents which tunnel beneath the snow in search of seeds. I’ve also caught far fewer White-footed Mice in the traps set for them in our garage. Their dead bodies are placed on the ground beneath our bird feeders where we’ve seen a Red Fox in recent weeks. Come morning the mice are always gone. I completely avoid using any and all mouse and rat poisons for fear that these dead or dying rodents are going to be eaten by the bigger wild carnivores or raptors which, in turn, may be killed from ingesting the poison.

One of the raptors we’ve seen close to our house during broad daylight in some past winters, especially when their food-finding becomes difficult, has been the Barred Owl. They are after the mice and voles which tend to follow the foundations of our garage and house, their “highways,” either in search of food there or on their way to the bird feeders where they scavenge on the seeds that have fallen to the ground. The dark eyes and rounded head of the Barred owl, lacking “horns” as on the Great-horned Owl, are easy field marks to notice.

The Bald Eagles, which happily have been nicely increasing in number in Door County, are already at their nesting sites and are paired, ready for mating come early spring. These largest of our raptors are primarily scavengers and don’t appear to have too much difficulty finding road-killed Cottontails, White-tailed Deer, and dead fish along the miles of shores. Unfortunately a deadly strain of botulism, coupled with the infamous Zebra Mussels, which has brought about a large die-off of Common Loons in the past few years, may also be picked up by the scavenging eagles. This possibility will be watched with great interest and concern.

Rough-legged Hawks, quite common here in late fall and early winter, have almost abandoned the county, due to deep and glazed snow making rodent-hunting difficult, and headed southward. Even Common Crows appear to be down in number perhaps for the same reason. Interestingly the highly opportunistic crows, so adept at finding food, are frequently followed by other animals such as Mallards. Several years ago, for the first time in the 20 years we had lived in the woods, several dozen Mallards came to feast on the cracked corn along the edge of our driveway near the house, apparently led there by the crows which also had been eating there.

I get to wondering, should the hundreds of forms of amazing technology and modern conveniences of living suddenly be taken away from us humans, placing us essentially on the same level with the wild creatures, how we’d be coping with this frigid weather and what we would be eating right about now!