Latest / Kendall County News - Shaw Local / Reflections: Late winter in the Fox River Valley has everyone looking towards spring

Transcript

Reflections: Late winter in the Fox River Valley has everyone looking towards spring · Kendall County News - Shaw Local

• 0:05
  Speaker 1: Reflections. Late winter in the Fox River Valley has everyone
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: looking towards spring. Written by Roger Mattiel for Shaw Local
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: News Network, this article is being read by an automated
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: voice brought to you by ever Lit. Although the weather
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: appears to be warming, don't be fooled. Late winter has
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: arrived on the Illinois Prairie. The sun is rising a
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: bit earlier each morning and setting a bit later each evening.
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: Frosty mornings still are common, but there are fewer of
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: them in March, and the cold snaps aren't quite as cold,
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: nor do they last as long. In the early morning,
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: as the sun begins to peek over the horizon, early
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: risers among the birds wintering in the Fox Valley come
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: out to feed. The woodpeckers big Harry's and smaller downies,
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: and the occasional red bellied whose belly isn't really red
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: at all, flit to the suet feeder and worry out
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: their day's ration of sunflower seeds layered in the fat. Meanwhile,
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: at two post feeders, the snowbirds, the cardinals, the morning doves,
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: and the rest of the yard's winter residents eat after
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: flying in their regular routes each picks the same route
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: each day, usually hopping from the locust tree to one
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: of the feeders, although some will take a short detour
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: to the soft maple overlooking the deck before deciding which
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: feeder to choose. After false dawn has fled and the
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: real thing is well along, the gray squirrels come out
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: to feed, with the grays always the first arrivals. Gray
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: squirrels are relative newcomers to our river valley. A couple
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: of decades ago, grays were unheard of. The big, reddish
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: brown fox squirrels were the only squirrels we saw. But
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: little by little, the smaller grays have moved to the
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: woods along the river, apparently migrating down from the oak
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: savannah now home to Windcrest Subdivision, feasting on the black
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: walnuts from the trees and their descendants. My great grandparents
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: planted a sentry in a quarter ago, and the acorns
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: from the little stand of oaks overlooking our shade garden,
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: one of my cousins planted decades ago. When the day
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: has gotten well along, about seven am or so, the
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: finches begin arriving, along with the rest of the birds
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: that have come to know there is a good meal
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: to be had in our backyard. Once in a while
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: a mallard or two will wander up from the river
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: to snack on the seeds and hauls the squirrels and
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: birds have dropped on the ground under the feeders. The
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: big Canada geese come up from the river too these days,
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: now that the ice is well out of the river,
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: and there are plenty of easy escape routes from our
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: resident coyotes and foxes. In the morning, when my wife
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: fills the feeders if a light snow has fallen during
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: the night, the tracks of the other residents of our
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: river valley are there to see. The tiny tracks of
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: the occasional field mouse can be seen, especially under the
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: seed feeder where the pickings can be pretty good. The
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: tiny paw prints are nearly invisible, but trails left by
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: the mice's long tails centered between the two lines of
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: tracks are sure giveaways. The cottontail rabbits leave their tracks
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: too clearly visible are the two short front paws and
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: the two longer back paws, with the tracks deeper. Where
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: the rabbits stop to look around, there are plenty of
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: dangers to watch for, ranging from the neighbor's dog to
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: my son's cat from across the street to one of
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: the foxes that, despite the area's growing human population, still
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: live in their dens. Along with the coyotes we see
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: wandering along the river bank. Raccoons wander about at night, too,
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: and with spring coming on, they leave their winter hideouts
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: more and more often. They like to stay along the
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: river where food's more plentiful, and their startlingly human like
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: prints can often be seen where they sampled some of
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: the fallen seed or carried away one of the slices
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: of stale bread we put out before we reinforce the feeders. Pulls.
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: Raccoons and squirrels alike would work hard to bend the
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: shepherd's hooks. We tried hanging the feeders from to get
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: at all that great food, sometimes carrying away entire feeders,
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: but we finally learned to outsmart the thieves some of
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: the time. Pickings here along the river's edge pretty good
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: this time of year for almost all of our wild neighbors.
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: The raccoons and foxes that made it through the coldest
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: snowiest weather can find plenty of winter kill to satisfy
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: their appetites from fish caught in the ice during quick
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: freezes to ducks and geese that surrendered to exposure, predators,
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: or old age during the winter. The river that proved
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: to be the death of so many animals during the
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: coldest weather becomes life itself during the early spring the
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: warmer sunny days, even when temperatures stay below freezing, because
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: the ice to disappear, not so much melting as evaporating
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: as open water returns. The shallows snag the bodies of
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: winter kills as they are pushed downstream by the current,
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: and the winter residents that live by scavenging, meaning most
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: of them, find it easier to rustle up a square meal.
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: The crows seem to spy the newest food first, but
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: they're joined fairly quickly by others, including mournful looking turkey vultures.
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: It's also no longer uncommon to see a great bald
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: eagle spiral down to run off the lesser scavengers to
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: dine in regal solitude. While the animal residents of the
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: river valley are becoming increasingly active as the days grow longer,
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: the trees and other plants are still in their winter mode,
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: not exactly dead, but not really alive either. The gnarled
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: limbs of the valley's oaks show starkly black against the
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: vivid reds of a clear evening sunset. And it's still
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: several weeks until most early spring flowers will poke through
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: the ground. But the sap is stirring in the valley.
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: Sugar maples and the stems of other woody plants are
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: turning red in preparation for butting out in a few weeks.
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: Early March isn't spring in northern Illinois, but as the
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: saying goes, we can see it from here. As this
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: Fox Valley winter plays its last few hands, we wait
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: for the first signs of real spring. Looking for more
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: local history, visits Eve