Busy Wildlife

By Jeff Berti
Although it may still feel like winter outside, and snow is forecast for the weekend, the sights and sounds of spring are beginning to arrive. Wildlife are starting to get busy.
If you have noticed lately, the outdoors sounds a little bit more cheery as some of the birds are beginning their courtship singing in hopes of attracting a mate. Many of the male birds are changing from their winter dull “look” to their flashy, colorful spring feathers. If you watch the fields and timbers, you may catch a glimpse of a colorful male bird as he disappears among the trees and grass.
Many people have reported seeing the “spring messenger”, the robin, showing up in flocks in their yards around the county. Others, myself included, have noticed several colorful bluebirds scouting their nesting boxes and defending their territory.
With the ponds melted, and the temperatures warming up, you may hear another of our signs of spring, the Spring Peeper and Western Chorus Frog. The frogs will call from shallow breeding pools on rainy and warm spring nights. Chances are, you have all heard their high pitched call, sometimes as early as February.
You may have smelled their “essence” and figured out that skunks are beginning to find mates and are looking for a place to raise their young. If you see a skunk roaming about in the daylight, it’s probably not diseased, but rather “lovesick”. Many of you have probably noticed the increase in road killed skunks lying along the highways signifying their increased activity.
If you live along a stream or near a timbered body of water, you will probably be seeing pairs of wood ducks checking tree holes and hollows, looking for a place to raise their families. Wood ducks are our most colorful ducks, as the male sports a blue, green, purple, red, tan, chestnut, black and white coat of feathers with a slicked back crest to boot. They are the only member of the “tree duck” family to live in Missouri. Early in the morning or late in the evening, you may hear the wood duck’s distinctive rising whistle.
Another sign of spring comes with a relatively unknown animal in Grundy County, the bobcat. If you live near a rural, timbered area, chances are good that you may hear a bobcat “caterwaul.” The high pitched caterwaul sounds something like a woman’s scream, and will make the hairs on the back of your neck stand up if you ever hear it. Bobcat caterwauls are nothing to be afraid of, because the sound is only used to find a mate. Besides, a large male bobcat is only 30-35 pounds.
It may still be cold outside, but most animals don’t use temperature to trigger spring courtship. Instead, the lengthening of days or internal signs like the loss of body fat let them know the time has come to produce young. Once again, nature brings new life to spring.
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I would like to remind you that there are still lots of seats available for the Hunter Education Skills Session at the NCMC Barton Campus on March 16. If you’re interested in attending, you will need to pre-register online at www.mdc.mo.gov. This will be the only class offered in Grundy County before the Spring Turkey hunting season, with certification limited to students 11 years of age or older. For more information please call me at 660-654-2677.