Snow Day

This winter, I have been treated to an amazing sight several times a week. A barred owl and a red-tailed hawk have been hanging out near one of the farms down the road from my house.

They perch in trees near the road or on the powerline that overlooks the pond. (I’m guessing that the fact that it overlooks a pond is just a coincidence. Fields surround the pond.)

I don’t recall seeing a hawk in my neighborhood over the winter, but this has been a very unusual winter: it was warm until the end of January. We had some snow, but it barely covered the ground.

I suspect the hawk hung around because the mice and voles in the field were easy pickings with not enough snow to hide under. Think about it – in winter, even the grass is mashed flat on the ground. There were not many places for even a mouse to hide.

And yes, after the Valentine’s Day Blizzard, that is “were easy pickings.” No more.

We had less than two feet of snow here, but that is still plenty of room for a mouse or vole to tunnel in and stay safer from hawks and owls than the bare ground.

It has definitely been a mixed winter for small rodents. There have been plenty of nuts and seeds for them to munch on, but until last week, few places for them to hide from their predators. I guess it’s been a good winter for eaters, but a poor winter for the eaten.

I have seen the owl since the big snow, but not the hawk. Perhaps I have just missed the hawk, since I’m not spending as much time driving up and down that road as I usually do. Or perhaps the hawk has flown off in search of a snowless field somewhere else, somewhere where the balance still favors the eaters over the eaten.