2/7/06

Mild Winter Gives Wildlife a Boost
by Joe Wilkinson

You could almost call this, The Winter That Wasn't. So far, anyway. Oh, December made us appreciate snow blowers, four-wheel drive and huddling around the wood stove, but January-and now early February--are doing a pretty good impression of late March and April, across much of Iowa.

That's great news for pheasants, songbirds and other wildlife dependent on food sources and habitat to make it through until spring. "If we can continue through winter without a major blizzard, that bodes well for carryover of brood stock," offers Todd Bogenschutz, upland game biologist for the Department of Natural Resources. "January's weather was nothing but positive for pheasants, and other game animals."

That brown landscape means food is more accessible to wildlife. The flock of 30 pheasants you saw in mid-December, highlighted against a deep, white coat of snow, is still feeding. However they don't have to stay out as long to scratch through to the waste grain-or gulp down so much of it--to provide the energy to stay warm. And when they are feeding, they aren't as visible to you, or the predators relying on them for their own winter survival. Critical roosting and escape habitat also opens up, as the snow recedes.

Bogenschutz estimates that for every week of snow cover, three percent of an area's hen pheasants will die. He knows birds were lost in December. Around his Boone office, 14 inches of fluffy snow teamed up with single digit temperatures. "We would see big groups of birds just huddled; in a sort of torpor. Hens would just sit on the road. It was more energy efficient for them not to move around," he recalled. "They faced a negative energy balance."

As bare spots and milder weather emerged, the outlook warmed. More habitat became available for escape and roosting cover. More fields were exposed. "They still focus on waste grain for food," assured Bogenschutz. "It is high in carbohydrates. It still gets cold at night. They have to stay warm with high-energy food."

That milder outlook boosts prospects for other wildlife species, too. The steady stream of songbirds at my feeders has been a mere trickle the last few weeks. "They don't need to eat as much and a lot of the food sources in the wild are exposed," agrees Brenda Wilson, from the Bird's Eye View store in Coralville. Still, she recommends keeping backyard feeders stocked. "One; even though birds visit your feeder, it is just one stop along the way. Two; it still gets cold at night," reminds Wilson. "The feeders provide a pretty good food source." Besides, she notes, people just enjoy the show as songbirds hit the feeders for easy meals.

There is still plenty of winter yet. In fact, not all of Iowa is basking in the relative tropics of 40 and 50 degrees. "We are starting to thaw up here. Some bare patches are appearing now," relays Neil Heiser, wildlife supervisor from the DNR's Spirit Lake district office. Snow and cold temperatures came-and stayed-there. Just in the last week or two have bare patches emerged from the snow cover. "I'm sure we lost some birds. Much of that snow was covered with a layer of ice," says Heiser. "(However) we are in much better shape than we were a couple weeks ago."

And so are the birds. But about the time you want to proclaim an early spring-and the crew at Hawkeye Wildlife Area near North Liberty is reporting more mallards showing up recently-you have to balance it with memories of late March snowstorms.

Wild Hog Shows up at Dubuque

Discovery of a wild hog is causing concern among wildlife officials in northeast Iowa. Though a female, it belongs to the European species commonly referred to as 'Russian boars.' Isolated reports of individual hogs and small herds are reported each year in Iowa; raising concerns that the species...or other feral hogs that have escaped confinement might be spreading. "The concern is where it came from, and whether there are any others," cautioned DNR wildlife biologist Mike Griffin, who identified the thick furred, 200-plus pound sow last week, at Sageville, on the north edge of Dubuque. "These animals can cause heavy damage to habitat and crops, through their rooting behavior."

Roving herds of the Russian boars wreak havoc in pockets of the Deep South, in the U.S.

Since the Russian boar is an exotic animal, in Iowa, it falls under the jurisdiction of the Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship, not the Department of Natural Resources. The most visible 'outbreak' of wild hogs in Iowa has been in the far southwest corner where, last summer, wildlife workers and hunters trapped or shot 34 and reported two other road kills around Riverton.

Griffin says he could not determine whether the Dubuque hog had been shot, hit by a vehicle or died in some other manner. He could not rule out that the hog might have been dumped, since it was found at the edge of a parking lot. He did note that a hole in its ear indicated it had been tagged at one point.

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