Even the most wakeful of the black bears will go to sleep this month. When she can no longer find food, she will crawl into some rude shelter and let the snow and ice wall her in completely. During the long sleep that follows, her body will feed from the layer of fat, which she has stored. Beavers and muskrats don't know when it snows and they don't care either. Down in their snug lodges and submarine channels, they live and eat undisturbed by the weather. In the woods, down under the snow over which you are walking, spring peepers lie nestled in the leaves and moss half frozen and asleep. In shallow burrows in the earth, toads lie cold and inert. They still live, however, and in the spring will wake up hopping and hungry. On top of the snow are the tracks of the whitefooted mouse that drags his tail when he jumps. These mice are often found beneath linden trees under whose roots stores of linden nuts and other fruits are hoarded for winter use.
Like rabbits, squirrels jump. But squirrels put their fore paws down side by side. Their tracks may lead to lunch counters, which are sometimes the tops of tree stumps where bits of nut shells are almost certain to be found. Bob-whites are living in flocks called coveys which usually comprise a family party. Under bushes and thickets, the snow is often covered with their foot prints. They are eating seeds and frozen buds. Overhead, the barbed tongue of the downy woodpecker keeps busy piercing the insects and larvae that he persistently "drums" out of the tree trunks. That tiny bird, which with the chickadee feeds on the insect larvae sleeping on the twigs, is the golden-crowned kinglet. You can tell him by his white wing-bars, forked tail and striped head.
The leaves are gone and the red-eyed vireo, "preacher bird," is no longer needed to clean them. He's busy eating insects from the leaves in South America, four thousand miles away. How many insects must he eat to produce calories enough to carry him that great distance twice a year? The twigs of Japanese Kerria bushes are green. The bare shiny scarlet limbs of red osier flash and glitter in the sun. The snow beneath the birch trees is dotted with tiny brown seeds fallen from the cones above. Take out your pocket lens and examine one and behold a tiny bird with outspread wings.
Bare trees make an interesting skyline. The elm trees wear tilted caps, red maples wear oval crowns and sugar maples have broad flattened tops. Beech tree hats are soft as feathers. There are dunce's caps on the Lombardy poplars. Old oaks wear ragged toboggan caps. Narrow and tapering as church spires, the fir trees stand half buried in the mountain drifts. Were their branches longer, they would break under their burden of snow.
About this Author
David is the author of many articles including Best Friend Quotes and also the author of Best life quotes
Other articles:
Disney movie auditions
Breakfast club movie
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=David_Bunch
