I started off this winter season with a column on feeding the birds. I discussed seed choices and feeder options and tried to communicate my deep passion for birds and the thrill that can be experienced when wild animals are drawn near. You can also achieve a great sense of happiness and fulfillment by simply caring for wild animals — who doesn’t enjoy feeling good about something every now and then?
Well, it just so happens that birdfeeders don’t always attract birds. Almost everyone who has decided to put out a little something for the local birds has encountered the reality of squirrels. In fact, the tenacity of squirrels and their ability to solve problems is so great that they have inspired people to write entire books on the subject. Then there is the chipmunk; famous for packing its cheeks with seed and carrying it away for safekeeping. Even I wrote a column on the topic of chipmunks in recent years.
Of course, there also is the very real situation of black bears. They are not an animal that every one of my readers has to deal with, but if you have bears in your neighborhood you are undoubtedly aware of their presence. They mean no harm, but their sheer size makes them capable of doing serious damage to feeders and other human possessions. The presence of bears can be sufficient to require a complete suspension of birdfeeding until they go dormant for the winter.
But there are still other mammals that may be visiting your birdfeeders without your direct knowledge. Many of these mammals are nocturnal, which means they can move about in the dark in virtual anonymity. In fact, if it weren’t for tracks left in the snow, we might not know these mammals were around at all. Opossums, raccoons, mice and even voles are frequent nighttime raiders, but there is still another species that simply delights me any time I catch a trace of it. The mammal I am speaking of is the eastern cottontail.
I’m one of the many people in the world who has to get up early for work. During the winter, this means that I leave when the stars are still shining and I often return home just as the sun is setting. I fill the feeders in the morning and notice that they are all empty by evening, but I don’t know who visited while I was gone. This can be a little depressing sometimes, but there is one trace of evidence that always buoys my spirit whenever I see it — rabbit tracks.
Unless you are very fortunate and live in an area where snowshoe hares are found, the rabbits that you see in your yard are eastern cottontails. I live in a rural setting where there are few dogs and even fewer cats. All of the properties are several acres in size and everyone maintains lawns, some of which are really large. This is a perfect habitat for rabbits and there are rabbits everywhere.
In the summertime, the rabbits feast on the grasses and clovers that grow in the lawns, but in winter they must shift to browsing on different types of food because the succulent greenery of summer is gone. A variety of winter plants will be fed on including plants that are seemingly inedible such as blackberry and raspberry stems. I often wonder if the rabbits enjoy such food, or if they simply eat it because they have to stay alive.
As it turns out, rabbits appear to actively enjoy birdseed and I have at least one rabbit that is a regular visitor to my deck in search of anything that the birds may have missed. It is not unusual for me to find tracks in the snow that suggest rabbits have been active during the night and I even manage to see the rabbits every once in a while. So it was a really exciting morning when I saw a rabbit feeding on birdseed late enough in the morning to actually get a photograph.
Just so you know, I have started putting out a little pile of birdseed in the same place every evening when I get home from work. By morning the pile is usually surrounded by rabbit tracks and noticeably smaller because so much of the seed has been eaten.
Which seed is the most popular? You guessed it — the shelled sunflower seeds.
It just occurred to me that a column discussing different mammal tracks in snow might be interesting, but that will have to wait for another day. In the meantime, I hope that you have a wonderful holiday break and for those of you who celebrate Christmas, I hope that it is a warm and wonderful time filled with friends and family. Stay safe and I’ll talk to you again next week.
Bill Danielson has been a professional writer and nature photographer for 22 years. He has worked for the National Park Service, the US Forest Service and the Massachusetts State Parks and currently teaches high school biology and physics. Visit www.speakingofnature.com for more information, or go to Speaking of Nature on Facebook.