The snow is one thing. The ice is another. Together, they're making it difficult for wildlife, even as subzero temperatures ease up...for awhile. Anything that has to peck, paw or pry through to food sources below is feeling the effects of ice under, and in some cases, on top of the foot of snow that socked Iowa in early January.

Some can survive extended periods. The basic rule of survival; the smaller the critter, the more it has to work to replace calories it burns to stay warm. Songbirds, for instance, are doubling up at the backyard feeders and in stands of weeds and other plants that hold high-value seeds up out of the icy layer. "Food is really important for resident wildlife," emphasizes Tim Thompson, wildlife biologist for the Department of Natural Resources. "That's why you see songbirds coming to feeders two or three times a day. They need to eat to fuel their fast-burning metabolism."

Quail, already at the northern edge of their range in Iowa, face hardship, too, across the current landscape. They can usually hold out for a week or so without food. A couple days after the snow fell, I flushed a covey of bobwhites in a long-abandoned and overgrown railroad bed. Most of them didn't fly more than 30 yards. There wasn't any cover, except for the narrow strip of overgrown trees and brush.

That makes those islands of safe cover even more attractive. As we walked into his shelterbelt of 20-foot cedars and smaller brush species a few days ago, Thompson and I didn't have to shout to be heard above the wind. "It really cuts down on the wind blowing through. You can see where the rabbits have really been down in this thick cover," he said, pointing out how the snow was packed down with telltale cottontail tracks. "We get a lot of birds roosting in the trees, too, when the snow is so deep. Otherwise, many of them prefer the grassy cover."

His backyard shelterbelt lies a few steps from an abandoned farmstead, several grassy waterways and some CRP acres, on a hillside west of Iowa City. The northwest wind blasted us again on the short walk to the farm buildings. "We should see a few pheasants as we get around the sunny side of the barn," he predicted. On cue, two roosters flushed from grassy clumps near the windbreak provided by the sagging structure. That prompted five or six more pheasants, hens mostly, to vacate their shelter for the far side of the hill. "Even with all the snow, there are still places for birds to get down in here," he demonstrated, brushing drifted snow from the bunched brome below. "This is going to provide a lot more warmth than sitting in the pine trees or brush; especially when the sun is out. They soak up the warm sunshine and that overhead cover still protects them from predators."

Now, though, in the third week of this ice and snow blanket, wildlife is moving farther from cover to feed. Maybe you've seen the flocks of turkeys over the last few days, pecking through the icy crust for waste grain in the fields. Deer, often seen at dusk and dawn, are hoofing down to those dropped kernels in the middle of the day. Their size gives them an advantage. They can build more of a fat reserve in the fall. They also range farther afield to get the nutrition they need.

Smaller game critters; like pheasants, have a tougher go of it. Most biologists say they can survive for up to three weeks with little or no food. But they still search for it. That leaves them exposed longer to predators. Those coyotes, owls, hawks and an occasional fox have had a tough time, too, since the storm. So have wandering cats, but those feral felines or the go-home-in-the morning 'house pets'...and their owners...deserve a special column themselves. Anyway, the increased need-to-feed by predators and prey alike mean fewer of them will make it to spring. How many don't make it depends on the weather. And the available cover.

As the saying goes, there's nothing you can do about the weather. But this isn't a bad time to underscore the advantage of food plots and other human created (or returned) wildlife cover. Well meant, but isolated attempts to provide grain in open areas just pulls those target species into the predator's bulls eye. A better alternative is to provide food plots, sorghum, for instance, or leaving a few edgerows of corn, near existing cover ahead of winter's worst. Better yet, providing that cover through CRP-type programs or other wild plantings reduces their chances of ending up Coyote Delight on tonight's menu.

And whether you watch them, hunt them or just know they are out there, better habitat increases their comfort margin...their survival margin...through the Iowa icecap.

Geese Gone

Seen any geese lately? On a Cedar River backwater last week, I counted over 300 geese and a couple dozen mallard ducks, tucked back out of the wind, with open water beneath them or a few webbed steps away. With our open early winter, they had no reason to migrate any farther south. Now, with the last blast of subzero cold on top of the snow and ice, most have flown the coop.

"The limiting factor for migratory birds is going to be snowfall," points out DNR wildlife biologist Tim Thompson. "If snow covers all the waste grain and they have to fly such a long distance to feed that they are 'losing energy' overall, they will migrate farther south." Thompson says an Iowa State University study showed that snow geese would fly 75 miles to feed, and still return to their home base in the evening if there was open water. When will they return? As soon as the 'snow line' recedes and water opens again.

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