UNDATED (WKZO AM/FM) — It appears as though this long Winter and may have finally come to an end and it has had an impact.
Farmers will be getting a late start in their fields possibly shortening the growing season, unless of course summery weather lingers into the fall.
Fruit growers say the biggest worry for them in the spring is a warm spell that tricks the plants into budding, followed by a cold snap that damages the buds. While the steady, consistent, lingering, unrelenting cold has prevented that from happening so far, it isn’t June yet and it could still happen.
The extended cold has taken its biggest toll on some of the natural species that inhabit wild areas in Michigan.
Cold and snow lingering into April has been hard on Michigan’s population of white-tailed deer, particular the herds in the Northern Peninsula, where there is still snow cover. Pregnant calves can’t get to the feed they need to give birth to healthy fawns and food will not be readily available for them when they arrive.
DNR officials are watching the situation closely and hoping for a quick melt off.
They say the situation is also a problem in the northern counties in the Lower Peninsula, but not as acute.
You may have also seen reports on TV about the threat to birds. WKZO’s own bird expert, Roger Taylor says those stories are a bit exaggerated in his opinion, and buying seed and bird feed isn’t going to help the species that are most at risk.
He says that early arriving insect eaters, primarily the Phoebes, the first of the insect eaters to arrive are the ones who took the biggest hit. Apparently the early bird does not always get the worm, especially if the ground is still frozen.
He says there is almost nothing avid or amateur birders can do for them, unless those folks have been storing up worms and insects all winter.
He says it’s been a famine but it’s about to be a feast for those birds as all the bugs that should have already emerged, and the insects that normally emerge at this time of the year are all going to do it at once.
He says the neo tropical birds that migrate here are still in the south, and the birds that over winter here have not suddenly forgotten how to find food and will be fine.
He says the vast majority of birds we see are the birds that live here all year and have adapted to the food supply and won’t be impacted by this variation in the weather pattern.
He says they may mate and hatch later than usual.
