Sublimation is overrated, that is the changing from solid water, snow or ice, into water vapor. The process, were it swift, would shovel our walks, clear our roads and make walking to a trout stream easier.
Even though sublimation and snow settling are at work as soon as the storm passes, we must wait for sunny days, thawing temperatures, and the coming of spring to do the job completely.
Laws of chemistry and physics mean rabbit and squirrel hunting is probably going to wait closer to the February 29 season closings. Trout fishing, too, though open since January 6, means wading through 18 inches to get to the open stream, which may be hampered by shelf ice along the water’s edge.
Lake and river ice continue to be marginal in places, and just beginning to be used, according to Brent Drake, at Tall Tails in Boscobel. “Those going out now will first be after panfish and northern pike,” he said.
Even when thawing takes over, snow melt runoff will cool a stream warmed by springs dumping 40 degree water into the trout’s home haunts. Insects are a distant future. Big, deep, and slow might be best lures.
Winter weather advantages snowmobilers, skiers, snowshoeing crowds, animal viewers, some photographers, and bird feeders. Don’t forget the ground feeding mourning dove, juncos and a few others. Watch roadsides
to see what picks at exposed grasses and weeds.
Ruffed grouse use deep snow to roost and feed from aspen treetops or hawthorn shrubs. Buds and frozen fruit are on the menu where red fruits may still be hanging. Bald Eagles can pick out rabbits atop snow or those flattened by traffic. Mature Eagles are pushed to patches of open water below river dams where fish are usually readily available.
Evergreens, particularly white cedar (arbor-vitae) are candy to white-tailed deer but this food chain has home owners and tree growers up in arms and down in profits.
Eastern white pine is often a deer’s second choice and then hanging, dry leaves on pin, red, and black oaks fill in rather than the animal pawing through 18 inches of snow to find waste corn and soybeans.
Turkeys spend more time roosted and gravitate toward the farmers who can still tractor through deep snow and spread fresh manure, or as some wildlife biologists call it, a hot lunch program for gobblers.
Free time to recreate outdoors is chewed upon by chores of getting outdoors. Sidewalk shoveling, roof raking, solar array brooming, driveway plowing, and even replacing air in vehicle tires are time consuming and take priority before driving countryside roads observing Eagles, deer, coyotes, cottontail rabbits, owls and hawks.
Automated air pressure pumps don’t always work well at subzero temperatures and vehicle mileage has already dropped more than a bit.
Window watching bird feeders, checking for incubating Bald Eagles, picking out dead white elm trees for April morel searches and tying flies can be enhanced, not hindered, by winter weather.
With deciduous trees and shrubs bare, last year’s bird nests and hornet homes stick out like a white topped castle. All spring and summer we missed these structures. More birds nested here this summer than we realized.
Generally winter is a fine time to spot perched Bald Eagles’ white heads but the way snow has hung on trees white structures have spoiled the activity, too. A white head may just be another snowball. Yellowstone Lake State Park area has a long time nest.
One may wonders if fox and gray squirrels, not relying on limb roadways, may miss a jump, hit snow piled high and taking a fluffy landing.
Feeder birds, particularly those preferring ground to hanging devices are proud to rely on a bit of shoveling under feeders or other flat surfaces provided by exposed boards and rocks.
Snow and cold are not friendly to some outside activities or the safety of participating. Danger lurks in exposure, falls, and breaking through weak ice. Vehicles stall.
Contact Jerry Davis, a freelance writer, at sivadjam@mhtc.net or
608.924.1112.
