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‘Tis spring, the time when a young male’s fancy turns to, well, not football. Humans are such an odd lot. Animals – under water, on the ground or in air – simply are driven by the survival of their species. We fret about home loans, school choice or health insurance. Wild creatures do not. Of course, those critters don’t rush to the hospital when sick, play music when sad or have barbeques on the Fourth of July. Animal behavior is largely driven by daylight length. And right now, we are gaining daylight by leaps and bounds, at least a minute...
Not all creatures have given up on spring ever happening. Some are counting on it. And soon. Great horned owls and Canada geese are sitting on eggs now, or soon will be. Two totally different Montana bird species with different diets and nesting habits have placed all their eggs in one spring basket. Great horned owls are sitting on eggs now, that will soon hatch if they haven't already, because they must. Think back to those January nights that, looking back, seemed downright subtropical. If...
Ever wonder on a cold, snowy winter day what fish are doing under the ice? The short answer is: about the same as the rest of the year. They breathe, eat and try to avoid being eaten. There are, however, some differences in winter. First, it’s important to remember that freshwater fish like reptiles and amphibians are coldblooded. (Scientists prefer the more precise word, poikilotherms, but we’ll forgive them.) That means their body temperatures are controlled through external means, in this case, water temperature. They do not maintain a con...
Recently, I watched a Cooper’s hawk take off from a rural, gravel road, clutching a dead meadowlark in its talons. An adult Cooper’s hawk might weigh 1 pound. An adult meadowlark probably tips the scale at 3 ounces. To compare that to a human, a 200-pound person would have to lift almost 40 pounds, then run away. Extra points if you can fly. Perhaps you are physically fit. Maybe you are the strongest at the gym, ran a marathon recently or reupped for advanced yoga classes. Isn’t it strange we do these activities to keep up our daily stren...
If this Universe has a Creator, she must have been having a good day when she created birds. They are colorful and dull, helpful and ruinous. They eat bird seed, harmful insects, even our garbage. They will also ruin your clean car and carry off your cat at night. They nest in trees, on the ground and even underground. Yes, even underground. A friend called a couple of years ago excited that a pair of burrowing owls had taken up residence in an abandoned gopher hole on her north central Montana property. From the joy those birds brought, you...
While this winter so far has given Montana plenty of snow and cold, the weather in March and April will determine to a large extent the mortality of animals like deer and antelope in northcentral Montana. That’s because during the next two months deer and antelope will rely on their energy reserves to survive, waiting for the growing season to begin. Snow and cold alone do not dictate how many deer and antelope will survive the winter. Survivability starts before the winter begins. How animals go into the winter – in good or poor shape – large...
Fish, Wildlife and Parks will hold a pair of meetings in two Hi-Line towns to explain chronic wasting disease recently discovered north of Chester near the Canadian border. The meetings are set for 7 p.m., Dec. 21, in Chester and Havre. The Chester meeting will be in the town’s high school auditorium, 511 Main St. The Havre meeting will be at the Hill County Electric Coop, 2121 U.S. Highway 2 NW. At both meetings, FWP officials will present a background on the disease, what is known about the disease along the state’s northern border and wha...
Twice this year, I've received questions about a native mammal popping up in unexpected places. No, not a grizzly bear, for goodness sakes. Think much smaller. Try a badger and a long-tailed weasel. Both mammals showed up on their native prairie of northcentral Montana, but where they're not always visible to humans. The questions were: Why have I never seen this animal before? Let's answer that question with a riddle: If you see an animal for the first time in an area where it's native and has...
When drought and the accompanying heat hits, attention tends to focus on withering crops, explosive wildfires and subsoil moisture. While those drought-caused problems are obvious, creatures that spend their lives underwater and out of sight can suffer as well. If a stream bed dries up, of course, fish don’t do well. But even before that final step, higher temperatures and reduced stream flow hurt. The Smith River south of Great Falls is a good example. “This has been a particularly tough year on the Smith,” said Grant Grisak, Fish, Wildl...
Back in third grade, I remember reading a story about a little boy who grew tired of rain ruining his weekends. So he chanted: Rain, rain go away. And he got his wish. The sky cleared, the sun came out and in a few weeks it was dreadful; too much heat, everything dried up. We have been tempted to repeat the little boy's cry this past month as it seemed our soggy weather would never end. Lawns are out of control, picnics are ruined and rivers run muddy. The first two are inconveniences, stuff to...
Those bits of feather, flesh and bones that sing and call forth are among our first signs of spring, even in March’s moodiness. Doesn’t matter if you hunt them in the fall, look for them with longing in the spring, or don’t care to know a robin from a red-tail; they are here and doing their thing. Over-wintering birds are sitting on eggs or getting ready to mate even through this leonine month of wind, cold and snow. A friend on the prairie had seen her covey of Hungarian partridge dwindle in numbers recently until just a couple of birds flushe...
When the temperature reaches far below zero, we often think of the outside as the dead zone. Plants and mammals are asleep. Birds have flown south. Yeah, there are exceptions but generally we equate winter's long nights and cold temperatures with death. Here's a wake-up call: Nature in winter is alive. Whether in the woods on the prairie or right smack downtown life is teeming even when we don't see it. Let's start where it's obvious: the bird feeder in the yard. In town you may have mostly...
