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Winter’s final crawl remains ahead

Scot Stewart

“It is the life of the crystal, the architect of the flake, the fire of the frost, the soul of the sunbeam. This crisp winter air is full of it.”

— John Burroughs

A quick peek out the window reveals that despite the four days of sun and the 40-degree temperatures, it is still winter out there. The Upper Peninsula continues to experience a rollercoaster winter of temperatures as the snowfall has tapered off. The warm temperatures last week did encourage many to dream a bit more about spring, even though a landscape lacking that dominant white adornment still seems a ways away. Meteorological winter, though, does start Saturday, and March does promise longer days, higher angles for the sun and warmer temperatures — between the snow squalls.

Birds have begun to hint at spring too. A northern flicker was reported at a feeder in Menominee on Tuesday. Most flickers migrate south for the winter and are not particularly early migrators. Although they do occasionally seek insects in dead wood, they feed more on ground insects, like ants than any other woodpecker and are one of just a few that does not stick around. One was reported to have overwintered in the Negaunee area, but overwintering flickers here are rare.

A northern harrier was seen in Bark River last Sunday, hunting in fields there. This hawk, a hunter of small mammals and birds on or near the ground, also migrates south for the winter. With lighter amounts of snow on the ground in some areas, the warmer temperatures may be luring a few north. While most harriers continue farther north during migration, a few to stay to nest in more open areas like fens in the eastern and central U.P. and open fields around agricultural and former farm areas.

Yet another “northern” bird, the northern hawk owl has continued in north Marquette. After spending nearly all its time for two recent weeks hunting on the north end of the former city composting area on Lakeshore Blvd. near Hawley Street, it shifted the center of its activities back to the southern end of the restricted access area near Wright Street where it has been relatively east to see, especially when it has been near the road, on both sides of the fence. Last weekend it even moved farther south to a tall poplar tree near the intersection of Lakeshore and Wright next to Lake Superior.

The hawk owl has been seen more closer to dusk and has been seen successfully catching prey — small rodents a little more often. Last Saturday it appeared to have captured a southern lemming right next to the fence on Wright Street at mid-day. Lemmings, a more unusual rodent in the U.P., is a little larger than the mice and voles, offering a more substantial meal for the owl.

While the owl moves fairly continually each day in the relatively small area it has called home the past two months, it has seemed to concentrate on hunting in smaller area for greater parts of the days during periods of about a week at a time. It brings up interesting questions about winter rodent populations and the possible movement of mice, voles, lemmings, and shrews (not rodents) during the cold, snowy months as some territories obviously open up as predators remove individuals. Besides the owl, foxes and shrikes have also been observed hunting in the compost area and there are strong signs foxes have marked some boundaries to territories nearby.

Meadow voles tend to move closer together in communal groups once temperatures start dropping below the freezing mark in fall but can travel out over a wider range in winter if they can develop tunnels under the snow. If mice and voles find unoccupied areas still supporting food supplies they may be tempted to extend their travels beyond their normal distances.

Elsewhere around Marquette, birders have noticed the songs of northern cardinals (these really are their official names of all these species — I am not making this up!). It is a welcome sight to see these bright red birds now well established in the Marquette area and along the Wisconsin border, but to hear their bright “Cheer, cheer, cheer!” call too in the depths of February is an added bonus. Downy and hairy woodpeckers are beginning to tap out their territorial drummings as they reestablish their summer territories and chickadees are also singing bright songs as they break out of their winter family groups and split up their winter territories for the summer.

Last week’s warmer temperatures also reopened the Lower Harbor in Marquette and sparked new foraging by common goldeneyes. Some of these divers have been working inland on the Chocolay and Dead Rivers but the Lower Harbor had drawn both goldeneyes and common mergansers back as the ice has thinned and was broken up in the wind.

Birders are still finding some birding successes in both the eastern U.P. with snowy owls, rough-legged hawks and sharp-tailed grouse and on the Peshekee Grade in western Marquette County with crossbills, evening grosbeaks and boreal chickadees. Blue jays have been dominant at many larger feeding stations and, in the woods, regular encounters with ruffed grouse have made for good birding opportunities. With a good month of winter still possible, there are great opportunities to get outside, bird, snowshoe, cross-country ski and take advantage of new snowflakes, ice formations on river edges and cold crisp air to revitalize a person’s winter worn days!

EDITOR’S NOTE: Scot Stewart is a teacher at Bothwell Middle School in Marquette and a freelance photographer.

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