×

Outdoors North: Dead of winter alive with wildlife, summer’s promise

“The birds like leaves on Winterwood; sing hopeful songs on dismal days. They’ve learned to live life as they should. They are at peace with nature’s ways.” — Don McLean

Cold and shivery, icy and blizzardy, these early days of February are considered to be right in the heart of what many people in the Upper Peninsula refer to as the “dead of winter.”

The bright and cheerful songs of the summer birds have long since faded over the southern horizon. Summertime picnics, swimming at the beach and those hot, sunny, watermelon-lemonade Saturday afternoons — though seemingly here just a moment ago — are certainly gone.

Stand on the shoreline of an inland lake and you’ll sense all the frozen dead winter advertises, with rock-hard beach sand and icy winds blowing snow across the flat, white, landscape. Last summer’s bird nests are filled with snow.

At 7:25 a.m. Thursday, under snow showers, cold temperatures and gray, cloudy skies, February’s plump prognosticator from Punxsutawney predicted six more punishing weeks of pure winter.

However, though you might not see it if you only take a quick glance, there’s a whole natural world of life happening in the wintertime, despite claims to the contrary.

If you get “out there” to a seemingly quiet spot to sit, if you listen for just a short time, you’re likely to hear the sounds of birds — not the springtime songs of robins, song sparrows and flickers — but the whirring noise from flocks of Bohemian waxwings or winter finches flying overhead or flocks perched in the tops of trees.

The tapping of woodpeckers and the calls of chickadees, nuthatches and redpolls crack the winter silence. Often making a soft “pishing” noise in the direction of these birds can draw them in quite close.

Then there are the friendly gray jays, which will take food from human hand.

Perhaps surprisingly, winter is breeding time for several species of owls. The beeping advertising songs of northern saw-whet owls and hooting great horned owls — which started nesting a month or so ago — are among the beautiful sounds of winter.

Silent and still, snowy owls might be hard to see at first, as they sit on the ground, a treetop or among the snow-covered rocks. But once they fly, their large wings and graceful flight is magnificent to see.

Like the snowy owls, concealed amid the whiteness of winter, are those creatures whose fur turns white to provide protection from predators that haunt the snow-covered woodlands.

Snowshoe hare and weasels, which also turn white in winter, are a delight to watch as they dash along the ground, between snow-covered logs. Weasels often approach to within a couple of feet in search of food.

Unlike hibernating bats and bears, fish are still active during winter, though often concealed beneath a covering of ice. In places where the water doesn’t freeze, like some rivers, sunshine in the wintertime can warm the waters enough to make brown trout and other fish more active and likely to strike an angler’s bait.

A closer look at a sooty-looking patch on top of the snow may not be dirt, but instead snow fleas — arthropods from the springtail order that hop around in large groups on top of the snow, on sunny days.

Red squirrels are active too as are flying squirrels, which come out from their winter roosts after sunset. Some larger animals are out in the wintertime too, including deer, moose, foxes and wolves.

With the help of snowshoes, the doors of nature in wintertime can be flung wide open – allowing visitors to the wild kingdom rare glimpses of places they can’t often reach during other seasons of the year.

Walking into the forest on a winter day can be a very solemn experience, with the towering pine trees flocked in white, the bright blue of the sky and, in some places, profound silence, but for short, low gusts of wind.

With a slice or two of cheese, hard salami or other snack taken out of a coat pocket, and a sip or two from a vacuum bottle, the coldest winter day warms almost immediately.

Far from dead, winter in nature is very much alive and available to experience, in no short supply, here in the Upper Peninsula.

Editor’s note: Outdoors North is a weekly column produced by the Michigan Department of Natural Resources on a wide range of topics important to those who enjoy and appreciate Michigan’s world-class natural resources of the Upper Peninsula.

Newsletter

Today's breaking news and more in your inbox

I'm interested in (please check all that apply)
Are you a paying subscriber to the newspaper *
   

Starting at $4.62/week.

Subscribe Today