“Anyone who says sunshine brings happiness has never danced in the rain.” – Author unknown
Gray overtones in darkened skies hung heavy over Lake County bringing welcomed relief with December's rainstorms.
According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, or NOAA, we still need plenty of rain to end the drought here in Lake County – and statewide.
With Lake County's average annual rainfall being 25 inches in the Clear Lake Basin, 60 inches on Cobb Mountain and a 45-inch average in Middletown, it will take considerable precipitation to end the drought.
The wild critters of Lake County have their own ways of dealing with inundation by the rainfall.
In cold weather our resident warm-blooded mammals and birds find it necessary to keep their body heat stable.
Animals have the ability to maintain this thermal homeostasis via their own built-in generators, or metabolic method.
Fortunately their natural coverings repel water. Birds, such as our beautiful blue jays and egrets, preen by using their bills to keep oils distributed over their feathers. The oils originate from the special gland at their tails, providing aviary species with natural raincoats.
According to Bay Nature Magazine, birds are tough creatures, and you will find them out feeding in rainy weather.
If the storms are too fierce, the birds that naturally nest in nooks and crannies stay put, but the others may crowd together under brush piles feeding on food that they had literally “ put away for a rainy day.”
After a storm, watch for large birds, like hawks and turkey vultures dramatically drying their wings by spreading them wide while standing on posts or tree limbs.
Mammals such as foxes and coyotes take shelter under rock outcrops or large shrubs. Smaller animals like woodrats or mice may huddle collectively in depressions against hillsides, or in rotted logs – maybe even in your barn!
Our local western gray squirrels, who mate in December to June, take shelter in dreys – their nests, located high in trees.
These creative creatures construct dreys with twigs which have been inventively swathed with grasses. Their winter dreys can be up to 36 inches in diameter, and are lined with cushy mosses, bark, leaves, fur from their tails or lichen.
These semi-enclosed shelters are utilized for birthing, and nurturing young. Their diet of pine nuts, acorns, insects and fungi – all high in carbohydrates, aid in accumulation of body fat for winter survival.
Gray squirrels hide, or cache their food. Called “scatter-hoarding,” they hide food all over the forest, and have the ability to find food by scent. Their “leftovers” make for good reseeding of the forest.
They use their lush tails as built-in umbrellas, which also serve them as protection from predators such as eagles or hawks.
“Weather is a great metaphor for life — sometimes it’s good, sometimes it’s bad, and there’s nothing much you can do about it but carry an umbrella.” – Terri Guillemets
Kathleen Scavone, M.A., is an educator, potter, writer and author of “Anderson Marsh State Historic Park: A Walking History, Prehistory, Flora, and Fauna Tour of a California State Park” and “Native Americans of Lake County.” She also writes for NASA and JPL as one of their “Solar System Ambassadors.” She was selected “Lake County Teacher of the Year, 1998-99” by the Lake County Office of Education, and chosen as one of 10 state finalists the same year by the California Department of Education.