Though snow is a pair to many of us, and downright dangerous, a few inches of it is pretty and interesting. Snow makes the whole landscape appear wilder, enhances the colors of vegetation and insulates ground-hugging plants from wind colder than the snow and small creatures from severe cold and predation.
Snow makes the landscape prettier, even on gray days. Snow makes the greens, grays and yellows of vegetation be more vivid, and stand out more. The blue-gray of distant woods also is enhanced by a snow cover. We can better see the details of twigs, weeds and tall grasses against the snow. And we can better see white-tailed deer and other animals on the snow at dusk and on moonlit nights.
Heavy, wet snow sticks to the branches of trees, pushing down the needled boughs of coniferous ones and beautifully outlining the tops of horizontal deciduous limbs and twigs in studies of white and dark. Squirrels and several kinds of birds find shelter from wind and predators under the cover of the heaped snow and needles on the conifers.
A variety of little critters in the Mid-Atlantic States, as elsewhere, have different strategies of surviving winter. Some animals sleep in the burrows most of winter, either living off their fat as wood chucks do, or awaking periodically through winter to eat stored seeds and nuts as eastern chipmunks do. Still others are active under a snow cover that protects them, as is a kind of mouse called a meadow mouse or field vole.
The great naturalist, Aldo Leopold, wrote about meadow mice in winter in his SAND COUNTY ALMANAC. "The mouse is a sober citizen who knows that grass grows in order that mice may store it as underground haystacks, and that snow falls in order that mice may build subways from stack to stack; supply, demand and transport all neatly organized. To the mouse, snow means freedom from want and fear".
Field voles live in fields and meadows, and along roadsides where the vegetation may get mowed occasionally, but not plowed under, allowing those mice to become well established along rural roads. In winter, when snow covers the ground, voles chew and tunnel through the grass under that protective cover of snow, more free of predation than before the snow fell. Now they can travel more freely in search of food and mates. But when the snow melts away, the voles' avenues, and themselves, are again exposed to predators, including hawks, owls, foxes and other kinds of predatory creatures.
Those of us who look for animal tracks in the snow can know what creatures are active and read what they were doing in the near past, such as where they were feeding and on what, and where they were traveling to. Following animal prints in the snow is intriguing.
Deer tracks are easy to identify. They have two toes, each one of which is sharp-pointed in the front, like the prints of cattle, but much smaller. White-tails here usually live in woodlots and thickets among fields.
Each back foot of an opossum has a toe that resembles a human thumb. Possum tracks, too, should be easy to identify.
The foot steps of red foxes in the snow demonstrate the grace and ease of the trotting foxes. Their series of prints are all directly ahead of each other, showing the slimness of those cunning members of the dog family.
The tracks of cottontail rabbits in our yards or along a hedgerow between fields is easy to identify, too. When the rabbit is running, its hind feet land on the snow in front of where the front feet made imprints in the snow. Therefore each set of rabbit tracks has two large foot prints side by side, followed by two smaller prints, one behind the other.
Gray squirrel tracks, which are quite common on maturing lawns with lots of big oak trees, are like rabbit prints, except that both back feet and both front feet land on the snow side by side.
The tracks of small birds are tiny and have three toes in front, and one toe in back to keep the birds from falling over backwards. The prints of small birds are usually around food sources such as weeds and grasses loaded with seeds, or around bird feeders.
Some of the bigger birds have more easily identifiable prints in the snow. The steps of ducks and geese are webbed. Great blue herons leave huge tracks and those of American crows are similar, but much smaller.
Snow melts in predictable ways, gently watering the landscape. Snow melts first on the south or sunny sides of rocks, trees and other objects where it absorbs more warming sunlight. The rocks and trees also soak up the sun's warmth and radiates it out, melting snow around them. Snow readily melts around running water that doesn't easily freeze. Snow also melts first on south-facing slopes because they get more direct sunshine.
Snow is perishable in the warmth and remains on the ground for limited time. But while it is on the ground, it has an impact on some of the plants and small animals wintering close to the soil. And we can enjoy reading the tracks of some of those animals in the snow cover. Snow can be a pain, but it also enhances the beauties of the landscape and gives us enjoyment.
No comments:
Post a Comment