A Look at the Season's Main Events
By Virginia Barlow
February
Feb 2: Groundhog Day / The familiar bird’s-nest-shaped seed heads of Queen Anne’s lace contain emergency food for birds / Blue jays may be cleaning out your feeder, but they are sharp lookouts and will sound the alarm if any danger is sighted / After a few days, crusted snow will be littered with an interesting collection of seeds, often from birches, basswood, and hemlock / The tapering shape of balsam firs allows them to shed snow when the load gets too heavy
Most mammals sit tight during a snowstorm, tucked in their dens, warm and dry. Wait two days and the woods will be full of their tracks / Look for the paired tracks of fisher zigzagging along wooded edges and in the woods / Northern flying squirrels prefer evergreen woods; southern flying squirrels prefer hardwoods / The snowshoe hare is well named. Its furry feet are very large for its weight / A raven may commute over 50 miles daily to a good food source
If you find a half eaten mouse or small bird impaled on a hawthorn, you’ve found the work of a northern shrike / The early morning songs of cardinals become more frequent and intense as the cardinal breeding season approaches / Meadow voles breed almost all year ‘round. Fortunately, they are eaten year-round, too, and are the major food now of hawks and owls / Single male pileated woodpeckers drum frequently. Their loud drumming diminishes at the end
Early robins are getting worms, where the ground has thawed / Raccoons go wandering on the warmer nights and may not end up in the den they started from / Buttonbush seed heads often stay intact through the winter. Spring floods will carry the floating seeds to new shores / Chickadees begin the songs that help establish their breeding territories. Spring is in the air / Common goldeneyes and common mergansers can be seen on ice-free sections of large rivers
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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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© 2008 by the author; this article may not be copied or reproduced without the author's consent.
