By Glen Wunderlich
Charter Member Professional Outdoor Media Associaiton
Mother Nature has dished out a menu from her vast repertoire of dirty tricks and very few Americans have escaped her wrath. From north to south she hit us hard, and although a recent moderation in her mood has given us a reprieve, she still seems to have the back of Punxsutawney Phil’s prophetic prognostication: More winter looms.
Texans have felt her power and lost theirs in the process and many in leadership have questioned their readiness, or lack thereof. Some of our fair-weather neighbors never had experienced such ice and snow, and without proper preparation, are fighting to stay warm without any help from a failed energy grid.
Meanwhile, in Oklahoma a cowboy acquaintance, Murph, who fought the fires that swept the land a few years ago, is questioning his role in the scheme of life. Now, the deep freeze is killing his newborn calves, as they are being born on the prairie. He puts it this way: “Doing all we can do to keep water open and hay put out but it’s not enough. Dead pile keeps growing each day. The survivors have lost ears and don’t show much hybrid vigor in this negative weather. Kinda disheartening when several momma cows chase you to the gate because you got their dead baby on the truck. I know the good Lord put me in this situation for a reason. One of these days I’ll know why.”
Here in Mid-Michigan, where experience has us somewhat prepared for severe cold and ice, our wildlife is showing signs of stress normally reserved for more northerly landscapes.
A lone robin mistakenly made the flight back to Michigan to beat the rush and is now desperately searching for food. It has located a dwarf Sir Lancelot crabapple tree in our yard, which retains fruit the size of peas all winter. That small cache won’t last long and it’s questionable if this misguided warrior will ever see another worm.
The snow depth has kept me from supplying a remote bird-feeding site with suet and seed, so I decided to have an adventure atop my old snowshoes to get out there with a backpack of life-sustaining nutrition for my feathered friends. It didn’t take long before I felt muscles in my legs that were perfectly content in relax mode, but I trudged on. Enroute, I spotted a group of wild turkeys that gradually moved away from this crazy Michigander. To my amazement, when I got to where they had departed, I found they were eating milkweed seeds from the remnants of the protruding pods still standing above the snow. That’s desperation.
And, the whitetail deer population is stressed, too, as evidenced by their drive to stay alive at the expense of our foundation plants around the house. I observed a mature doe on its hind legs amid a stand of white pines browsing its buds. No doubt, pine trees are not a preferred food for deer, but it beats the starvation alternative.
Ice remains on the ground below the snow cover as an impenetrable barrier to green, life-sustaining vegetation and it will take plenty of warmth to break through it. Mother Nature is still in charge, no matter who thinks they’ll be able to alter her course by changing the climate.
