Creature Feature – Seasonal Sights

Fall and winter offer countless opportunities to experience nature as it dances to the rhythm of the seasons.

In early fall, southward migrating turkey vultures can be seen soaring above, their broad wings positioned in a shallow V, with wing tips splayed upward. These massive birds are experts at soaring and rarely flap their wings. They dip and wheel with the wind, gliding effortlessly on the thermals. At home in the skies, turkey vultures spend up to one third of their waking hours on the wing.

As autumn unfolds, mature white-tailed bucks are crowned in splendor and have lost the velvet covering on their hardened antlers. Another rutting season is here, and rival males are competing for receptive females to mate with. The deer also continue to grow their grayish-brown winter coats in preparation for the cold months ahead.

When frosts begin to nip the landscape, dried goldenrod stands are dressed in muted, sepia tones. Yet, the plants still harbor insect life, and their seeds feed hungry birds including chickadees, goldfinches, juncos, and downy woodpeckers. As fall gives way to winter, ruffed grouse can also be found eating goldenrod seeds. 

Muskrats stay active in winter. When the ponds freeze over, they maintain open holes in the ice, shoving aquatic vegetation and other debris through the holes to form “push-ups.” These small mounds aren’t true lodges but provide sheltered places where the muskrats can eat foraged plants above the water.

After a big snowfall, head into the woods where stately evergreens are draped in heavy white mantles. Animal stories are told through tracks in the snow: here, a fox pursued a rabbit up to a thick tangle of briars, and there, tiny mouse tracks end at a large imprint of an owl’s body and wings. Small star-shaped paw prints in the snow tell us an opossum ventured out from its cozy leaf-litter nest after the storm.

What will you see?

Article & photo by Margie Manthey