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to MDC Home Page1. Snowbirds' arrival at feeders heralds winter
2. 1997 firearms deer harvest tops 180,000
3. Electronic bonanza of conservation information
available
4. Outdoor
Calendar
Most people call him simply 'the 'possum' and think of him rather contemptuously as a little animal of no particular importance. . . . They never realize, when they see Didel the 'possum, ambling through the woods at that slow, leisurely gait which has brought him safely down through the ages and eons strewn with the bones of the swift and the strong, that this small, sluggish, insignificant gray beast is the most wonderful of all the four-footed inhabitants of our forests.-Herbert Ravenel Sass, "On the Wings of A Bird"
These hardy harbingers of winter define the season.
JEFFERSON CITY--When autumn turns blustery, Missourians can count on seeing dapper little birds in gray flannel jackets around their bird feeders. They bounce around like balls of wind-blown fluff, gleaning seeds that other birds drop. Sticklers for ornithological correctness call them dark-eyed juncos, but to most people they are snowbirds.
Snowbirds arrive in Missouri as early as October, and they can be found scratching for seeds in thickets where they blend into the background. But casual observers are more likely to notice them when the year's first snowfall renders their slate-gray upper plumage most visible. Naturalist Laura Martin described the snowbird's coloration as "leaden skies above, snow below." Perhaps that's how they got their popular name.
Snowbirds are even easy to recognize in the air. When they take flight, they flash bright white tail feathers that frame a dark center. There are three geographic races of dark-eyed juncoes. The most common one here is the slate-colored junco, but 2 to 5 percent of juncoes seen in Missouri are Oregon juncoes, which have black hoods, brown backs and pinkish sides.
Snowbirds are tolerant of human activity and are frequent visitors to home bird feeders. They aren't picky eaters. They prefer sunflower seeds, but will also take cracked corn, millet, sorghum or safflower seeds.
They prefer to hunt for seeds on the ground, so they usually are seen foraging beneath feeders rather than perching on them. This is a fortuitous habit, since it avoids competition with cardinals, titmice, blue jays and other birds that prefer to sit at feeders. It also helps gardeners, since snowbirds clean up weed seeds while foraging for bird seed.
Snowbirds prefer to scratch for food amid brushy cover, which provides protection from hawks and marauding cats. Placing feeders over shrubs or in flower beds where dry plants are allowed to stand throughout the winter creates perfect snowbird habitat. Discarded Christmas trees also make excellent cover. If your feeder is located on a deck or patio, putting lawn furniture underneath creates the same sort of cover that gives snowbirds a sense of security.
Snowbirds spend their summers raising broods from central Michigan to the boreal forests of Labrador. Tens of thousands spend their winter in Missouri. Some time around March or April, they head back north.
Snowbirds and 19 other common feeder birds are shown in "Winter Birds," a reprint from the Missouri Department of Conservation. The reprint also gives information about identifying birds commonly seen at bird feeders in Missouri. To receive a free copy, write to Missouri Department of Conservation, Winter Birds, P.O. Box 180, Jefferson City, MO 65102-0180.
-jim low-
Missouri came within spitting distance of the record 11-day November deer harvest set in 1995.
Jefferson CITY--Favorable weather and a strong deer population helped push the harvest from Missouri's 1997 firearms deer season to only 245 deer short of a new record.
Hunters checked 186,452 deer during the first segment of this year's firearms deer season Nov. 15-25. That is 6,057 more than last year and barely short of the 186,697 deer checked when Missouri had its first 11-day firearms deer season in 1995.
"We certainly had the right weather for deer hunters," said Lonnie Hansen, wildlife research biologist for the Missouri Department of Conservation. "It was pretty cold the first weekend, but hunters shot a lot of deer anyway. Southern Missouri's harvest was down, but northern Missouri made up for it."
Thirteen Missourians were reported injured in firearms-related deer hunting accidents this year. No fatal deer hunting accidents were reported. The 1997 hunting accident figure is two more than last year and six more than in 1995. With more than 377,000 people licensed to hunt deer in Missouri this year, the accident rate was less than one for every 29,000 hunters.
The deer kill during the November firearms deer season fell just 1,629 short of the total kill from the November and January firearms deer seasons in 1996-97. With the two-day January firearms hunt still ahead, Hansen said it is likely the total firearms deer harvest will top 190,000. When the figures from the nine-day December muzzleloader season and the three-month archery deer season are added, the total will approach 220,000. Last year's total deer harvest for all types of hunting was 214,442.
Top counties for the November firearms deer season were: Macon, 4,361; Boone, 4,000; and Callaway, 3,403. Regional totals were: Northeast, 40,760; Northwest, 37,934; West-central, 25,116; Central, 23,847; East-central, 15,158; Ozark, 13,788; Southwest, 12,673; Southeast, 9,841; Kansas City, 4,727; and St. Louis, 2,608.
-jim low-
Missourians who are "on line" have a wealth of outdoor information at their fingertips.
JEFFERSON CITY--When the latest class of conservation agents graduated from training last summer, they were given a 7-pound field manual to augment their knowledge of fish, wildlife and forestry. The next class of agents will receive a book that will fit in their shirt pockets. It will be on a diminutive computer disk.
Almost all of the documents included in the agents' resource book are also available to the public on the Conservation Department's Internet site on the World Wide Web. The goal is to make all of the agency's public documents, often requested by mail, available via computer. It's a sign of the Conservation Department's commitment to meet the public electronically as well as on paper.
The Internet address for the Conservation Department's web site is <http://www.mdc.mo.gov/>. The Conservation Department's best-known product, Missouri Conservationist magazine, also is available at the web site. Issues include 1997, 1996 and 1995. The web site includes an electronic form to subscribe to the print version of the monthly magazine. Information on books and videos published by the Conservation Department, along with an order form, also appears on the web site.
The web site has information on the Conservation Department's television show, Missouri Outdoors, and a radio feature called Nature Notes. You can see a list of upcoming features, schedules and channels on the television program, and hear "Nature Notes" with the same quality sound you would receive on a radio. Information in this section includes wild game recipes featured on the television show.Got a question about conservation? If you can't find a document to answer your question using a searchable menu, you can go to a comments section and type in your question. The Conservation Department staff will return an answer via E-mail.
A Kid's Page at the Conservation Department web site includes the latest edition of "Outside-In," a portion of the Conservationist magazine written for children. The page includes games and information on how to get "plug-ins" to play the games and how to install them.
One of the Conservation Department's most useful books, "Missouri's Conservation Atlas," is also on the web site, and it's searchable. A detailed index describes facilities, activities and fish and wildlife you can expect to find on the more than 900 areas listed. The web site does not include maps but it does give directions to conservation areas.
To find the atlas, click on "Places to Go." A quick search allows you to find areas by name or county. A detailed search lets you use area name, county, facilities and activities or animal abundance to find a site. A hunter might look for areas that support grouse, while an angler might search for fishing lakes that have accessible jetties and docks. The atlas also has Conservation Department sites in the metro areas, maps of Missouri River basins and directions to Conservation Department shooting ranges.
News from the Conservation Department also is available on the Internet web site. The weekly "All Outdoors" news release package is there, plus an archive of special news releases and information on Conservation Commission meetings.
The Conservation Department's web site has a wealth of links to other sites. These include links to kid's sites that focus on science education, links to other fish and wildlife sites, links to conservation departments in other states, federal biological agencies, the National Park Service, the Department of Interior and endangered species sites. It also has a link to all publicly available Missouri state government documents.
Computer users also will find the "Migratory Bird Digest" (regulations for hunting ducks, geese and other migratory birds), the "Missouri Strategic Gypsy Moth Plan" and booklets on the lizards of Missouri and management of forest-edge wildlife habitat.
The Conservation Department updates some information on its web site weekly and continues to add new types of material.
-jim auckley-
News Services Coordinator
(314) 751-4115, ext. 243
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