Bush January For Ontario Wildlife - Squirrels, Herons, Vultures - West Nile Virus Overwintering, Too

TORONTO -- Critter-wise in Ontario's fields and forests, it's become crowded out there. Birds that should have gone south. Little animals that should be snuggled up in their burrows. Insects that shouldn't be seen at all. They're all out this winter.

And the naturalists, zoologists and animal-health scientists who observe them aren't sure what they're seeing because, as University of Guelph veterinarian and epidemiologist David Waltner-Toews points out, "Warm weather and no snow in winter is uncharted territory, and the bottom line is we haven't studied this."

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More vultures, bald eagles, ducks, yellow-rumped warblers, great blue herons -- to name a few bird species. There are also more insects, such as midges, when no one would think of seeing midges. Southwestern Ontario naturalist Alan Wormington says there is no huge change in animal and bird behaviour. Rather, it's a case of where one great blue heron might have been seen in winter a few years ago, now it's not uncommon to see 10.

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West Nile virus is already overwintering. Lyme disease could spread. Ontario's highly effective wildlife-vaccination program could be undermined by the northern movement of rabies-infected U.S. raccoons.

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http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20070113.WINTERCRITTERS13/TPStory/Environment

Here in the Carolinas many of us refer to them as "butter-butts". I have several peanut butter feeders up and they usually flock to them. Haven't seen as many this year. I chalked it up to the loss of habitat/greenspace.

Habitat loss probably enters in, but it also could be that a lot of them are staying in place/not migrating---according to this article.

I saw a bat, probably a little brown, at about 9:00 at night, in January, in Toronto!