Humans may hate winter, but animals dislike it even more (MD)

[Donna]

I know what you think of the snow. You hate it. But what do our local animals think? Has anyone thought to ask them?

Bill Peters of Dunkirk, Md., said his two Labrador retrievers, Fred and Wilma, are, like most humans around these parts, sick of the snow. Oh sure, they liked it at first -- romping, frolicking, even, occasionally, gamboling -- but once it got over shoulder height, it complicated every dog's favorite pastime.

The snow made the pair's usual backyard relief stations unreachable. Wrote Bill: "I've had to resort to 'trench warfare' in that I've had to dig various paths in the deep snow so that each can find a scented area that they would do their business in. They prefer to go in areas that they are comfortable in and each has a few to choose from normally.

"Indeed, if you were to visit, you'd think I had a paintball maze set up with no customers -- no splattered paint, just yellow and brown snow here and there."

If I were to visit? No thanks, Bill. As appealing as that sounds, I have my own Jackson Pollock Verdun in my back yard.

For wild animals, it's the other end of the digestive process that's been complicated by the snow. Birds especially are having a tough time finding food. This has been a good winter to have a bird feeder in the back yard.

"At a time like this, it really does make a difference for a lot of birds," said Greg Butcher, director of bird conservation for the National Audubon Society, who watches birds from his house in Reston. "The snow just completely covers a lot of natural food sources."

Ground-feeding birds such as white-throated sparrows and dark-eyed juncos typically look for weed seeds in grasses and shrubs, which are covered this year by a mantle of white. A feeder full of black oil sunflower seeds, mixed seed with millet or suet can be a lifesaver.

"People that are feeding birds are just loaded with birds at feeders," Greg said.

The season actually started slowly. "In November I was getting calls: 'Why aren't any birds coming to our bird feeders?' "

Part of the reason was that some birds -- pine siskins, purple finches, red-breasted nuthatches -- are irruptive species. Sometimes they spend the winter in Canada; sometimes they spend the winter here.

"This winter they all stayed up in Canada," Greg said. "They're probably happy they did. I think a lot of Canada is warmer than we are."

The harsh weather has forced a couple of interesting visitors to bird feeders. Greg was among a hundred or so birders who visited a house in Reston over the weekend to see a varied thrush -- imagine a robin with a bright yellow-orange breast. It's usually found on the West Coast.

"It probably wandered east in the fall," Greg said. "Nobody was seeing it much, but now with the cold weather, it's coming to his feeder a lot."

Dozens of people also cycled through a house in Bowie, looking at a painted bunting, an almost comically colorful bird whose green, blue and red plumage definitely stands out on a white background.

"They're supposed to be in Florida, Mexico or Cuba," Greg said. "Some are flying north instead of south. Because they like the millet in bird feeders, they seem to be surviving."

Greg said it's hard to predict the long-term effects of the snow.

"There's definitely mortality associated with these storms, no question about it. Some birds died, even though I think it's certain more birds would have died if we didn't have feeders out. I don't say that every week of the year, but we don't have these storms every week of the year."

Thankfully, nothing died over at Oyster-Adams Bilingual School on Calvert Street NW, where science teacher Simone Welch keeps 18 animals in her classroom. They include an African pygmy hedgehog, a ball python, a corn snake, a bullfrog, hissing cockroaches, a leopard gecko, assorted goldfish, a Russian tortoise and a three-legged box turtle. ("He got hit by a car," Simone explained.)

Simone went to Oyster three of the four days D.C. schools were closed, including one day when she trudged through the teeth of the storm.

"It took me 45 minutes to walk from north of Dupont Circle," she said. "It was nuts, but they had to eat."

Simone thinks the critters were happy to see her. "Generally, every day I let them get out and exercise around the room. I think they had as much cabin fever as we did."