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Feels like spring, doves cooing, cardinals singing even seen a chipmunk today... Gotta be about the mildest winter I can ever remember... Even the bikers are out...
Would bet even the turkeys were gobbling this morning...
If there were turkeys I’d agree with you.
Enjoying a camp fire today. Hope march doesn’t kick our butts!
I've seen a few Robins already and turkey buzzards too. Heck, the buzzards aren't supposed to show up in Hinckley until like March 15th.
Seen my first buzzard of the year today near Canton, so its just a short flight to Hinkley...8^)
Just hit 70 degrees at my location...
When you say buzzard, are you referring to turkey vultures? I’ve had them on my place all winter.
Pat, they were probably black vultures not turkey vultures. Black vultures don’t migrate
Yes, turkey vultures.... My grandpap and dad had always called them buzzards since I was a kid, must be an Ohio thing back in the day popular Cleveland radio station WMMS "Home of the Buzzard", logo was a turkey vulture, after the turkey buzzards day in Hinkley... There's a cool story of the background on Buzzards Day in Hinckley, after a great hunt back in the 1800s (I think), got it started.... Maybe google it...
Seen another buzzard over my house yesterday...
Been reading lately where the all black smaller Black Vultures from the south have been expanding their range north into Ohio the past few years, but I hadn't seen one yet... I guess they're more aggressive than the turkey vultures and will attack and prey on small farm animals like calves, lambs, and even fawns is what I read... They will actually kill and scavenge whereas a turkey vulture will only scavenge...
Turkey vulture left, black vulture right...
Here ODNR linky:
https://ohiodnr.gov/discover-and-learn/safety-conservation/wildlife-management/nuisance-wildlife/nuisance-blackvulture#:~:text=In%20Ohio%2C%20there%20are%20two,attacking%20newborn%20calves%20and%20lambs.
Personally have never seem a turkey vulture during the frigid dead of winter here, so yeah Pat, likely black vultures are at you place during winter.... Here is another linky:
" And while the black vulture is classified as a migratory bird, they don’t fly as far south as the turkey vulture. “It might be just southern Ohio where they will hang out all winter,” Butler says. “U.S. Wildlife Services has been dealing with them since 2008, when it was mostly a southwest Ohio problem, but it’s everywhere now.”"
Thing that kind of surprised me in that last link, is they're allowing very limited kill permits for these raptors, gotta be about the only bird of prey that can legally be killed....
Pat - You have pix of the birds that hung around you place in winter? Thanks...
Ah, the wolf lovers are going to like this...8^))) Linky to the Big Hinckley Hunt in 1818 when a group of settlers killed hundreds of wild animals, prompted by wolves and bears killing their livestock:
https://www.beaconjournal.com/story/news/local/2013/12/23/local-history-great-hinckley-hunt/10606374007/
" buzzards were attracted to the carcasses left behind in 1818. They roosted in the ledges of the township and returned every March in a spring pilgrimage. To this day, buzzards remain the proud symbol of Hinckley."
Kinda looks like the WMMS dude...8^)
My daffodils that I planted in my woods started blooming today. Just missed a February bloom by one day. This is the earliest I’ve ever seen. Just wonder what this weather will do to the pollination of all the trees and the fruit and nut production. The deer have been out in droves, it’s like there was never a fall harvest of them, mild winter, looks like they came through in great shape. Looks like fall may may be a bountiful season.
Do Ohio deer ever have a rough winter? I can't imagine the climate in Ohio ever producing a winter kill, but maybe I'm missing something.
My NY property gets 20' of snow a year and the deer herd is hammered ever few years. The winter of 2017 we got 340" and my snowbank finally disappeared on Memorial Day. It was insane.
Yeah Jerry, noticed daffodils in my yard up a few days ago, but no flowers yet... Curious, did you plant for flowers for looks or is there some kind of a benefit am unaware... Mine came with the property 14 years ago, and they seem to come up annually, and some seem to have seeded wild cause you can tell where previous owners purposely planted them all around the house, but there's a few that seem to sprout scattered even over to the neighbors
The Farmers Almanac screwed this season up, its the mildest winter I can recall... The lake effect areas of Geauga, Lake and Ashtabula counties may get winter kill in harsh winters, but probably unlikely in your area Pat, although I bet some probably died during the winters of the late 70's there... I lived in Geauga county a few years back in the 80's and it started snowing in late October/early November through late March/early April up there... Didn't see much grass during the winter... I remember one year living up there the first day of spring it was lightening and thundering and snowing like a bangy... One f the few time I've experienced that... It's climate is probably a lot like upstate NY's... The snow gets so deep up there deer will yard up... Those shoreline counties east of Cleveland to PA is a whole different terrain and weather up there... A lot of arctic birds migrate down to winter there... Once seen a Great Grey Owl on the Geauga/Ashtabula county line and shot the only grey phase ruffed grouse I'd ever seen in Ohio there... Grouse are all red/brown phase around here, or should say, used to be... The DOW was trying to reintroduce and establish a Snowshoe Hare population in Ashtabula County a few years ago but don't believed that project succeeded well, but haven't read up on it lately...
So to answer your question, does Ohio have winter deer kill, yeah, maybe some years in certain areas... I know if the snow gets deep like in the 70's, deer even yard up in our area, but there is so much agricultural likely few die, but I've seen some really skinny looking deer in April...
Speaking of spring, it's not officially spring around here until ya hear the first Peeper frogs...8^)
1977 or 78 the deer were known to have yarded up in areas. This was the year the quail were wiped out above rt70 and only pockets remained in some of the southern counties. There was winter kill of deer.
I believe that the official view is that Ohio does not have a winter kill. I think that is for the most part true. I have lived in Ohio and hunted Coshocton Conty since 1985. During that time we have not had conditions which would cause a winter kill. At times cold weather and snow may have caused deer to go hungry but the deer are built to handle that. Most periods of snow cover seem to be over within 2 weeks. The big year to year difference is how healthy the deer are coming out of the winter not if they survive.
This was taken 15 miles north of my northern NY property. The deer on my ground survived by going to yards with hundreds of other deer. One of the reasons I bought a property in Ohio is because I never had to worry about winter mortality again. Up in NY, I can lose as much as 10-30% each winter/spring.
This was taken 15 miles north of my northern NY property. The deer on my ground survived by going to yards with hundreds of other deer. One of the reasons I bought a property in Ohio is because I never had to worry about winter mortality again. Up in NY, I can lose as much as 10-30% each winter/spring.
Wow, now that's some heavy duty snowbanks!
Checked when I got home Thursday, March 2nd and photoed these... They may have bloomed a day or two earlier like jerry's but don't really know... Was the only batch I seen with flowers...
Most are in this stage...
I had the peepers singing like crazy a couple of days ago here in northern ohio. I also have some small green leaves showing up on some brush here.
Another sign of spring, seen a male Redwing blackbird today...
Robins in the yard today...
Zbone, I also saw my 1st red winged black bird of the year a few days ago. I heard it's familiar call that alerted me to it's presence. I haven't heard a turkey gobble yet even though it has been gobbling time. Season is just a little more than a month away. I think it's going to be pretty much a silent spring as far as turkeys are concerned in my part of Huron County. The turkey population around here is just a mere fragment of what is was ten years ago.
This cold snap put my daffodil flowers in a hurt... Heck, it's more wintery now than it's been all winter...
Yeah those male Redwing Blackbirds are a better sign of spring than Robins... Read where they arrive first to establish territories...
Same with turkeys around here, not near the populations it once was...
Most or many of my daffodils are now in bloom, but I still haven't heard peeper frogs yet...
