A Look at the Season's Main Events
By Virginia Barlow
February
Breeding season for skunks / For overwintering birds, it’s probably as bad as it gets: temperatures are still low, and food supplies are dwindling / Great horned owls are nesting. The eggs will hatch by the end of the month / Provident beavers feed off their autumn harvest of bark and remain beneath the ice all winter / Turkeys are scratching through snow for nuts and seeds. When snow is deep, look for turkey flocks on south-facing slopes or snow-free areas
Deep snow makes life difficult for fox and deer, but it allows the snowshoe hare to reach a new supply of tender shoots / Foxes will cache food caught during good hunting days in pits they dig in the snow. Then it is covered over / Coyotes are sexually active. Five to 9 pups will be born from mid-April to May / The flower stalks of spireas, such as meadowsweet and steeplebush, persist through the winter and are common in meadows or neglected pastures
Maple sugar makers are on alert. Sap will start flowing in earnest anytime now / Caddisfly larvae are carrying their cases along stream bottoms and feeding, much as they do in summer / Wild turkeys get braver as their food supplies dwindle. They may venture into yards and orchards for spilled birdseed and fallen fruit / Chickadee flocks are breaking up; listen for the two note territorial whistle of the male; feebee, the first note higher than the second
Woodpeckers may drill holes in cow-parsnip stalks, searching for the insects that shelter inside / If snow is deep, voles will be out of sight as they feed on the bark of small trees and shrubs / Foxes will be born soon, often in a former woodchuck den / When mice can hide in deep snow, owls must struggle to eat / On warm days, look for snow fleas in the woods, clustered in footprints (yours or other animals’), and stoneflies near clean rivers and streams
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These listing are from observations and reports in our home territory at about 1,000 feet in elevation in central Vermont and are approximate. Events may occur earlier or later, depending on you latitude, elevation - and the weather.
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© 2006 by the author; this article may not be copied or reproduced without the author's consent.
