One parent sat on an egg or two while another perched nearby over a trout stream.

The two bald eagles are sharing duties for the next three months or more, then the eaglets will fly down just prior to firecrackers announcing independence, but it’ll be several more months after that before the eaglets are truly independent and can find enough food themselves.

The perched bird looked down at water, the bank grasses, and muddy terrain, then stood up and drifted quietly toward a clump of dried grass were a squirrel, muskrat or yet smaller mammal was investigating spring’s arrival and winter’s damage.

Double talons grabbed grass, the animal, and the bird headed high above the stream, circled the nest, and landed with food and more nest bedding. Any fresh flesh or carrion is welcomed in this bird’s food chain.

Nearby a gray squirrel struggled to balance atop a white elm tree, breaking twigs with unopened flower buds. Two feet held a limb and two held a twig. An imperfect tail, likely from winter’s wrath, blew in the wind but helped balance the rodent just the same.

White-tailed deer worked overtime gathering, chewing, and again swallowing green grass, dried stems, partially decomposed acorns or just the seed caps.  A few remaining corn and bean kernels, now free from snow and ice.

Wild turkeys uncovered nuts and mixed them with a few green shoots, but as one rural delivery worker noted, the turkeys themselves sometimes become meals for this bald eagle pair.

American robins are still finding crabapples appealing, but when the frost leaves, earthworms will fill in nicely.

During the upcoming weekends and then in earnest starting April 17, turkeys may become our food, too.  License up, scout early, and note sky-lighting is a sure way to tip the scale in favor of the birds when walking to a hunting or photographing position. Slip down off the ridge a few yards, making even better use of natural camouflage.

While a long ways off, but as a reminder that spring sometimes comes early, bringing new food sources for all. During March 2012, the thermometer topped 80 degrees numerous times, enough so that a few morels were poking up by March’s third week, surely a record here in southern Wisconsin.

Now’s a great time to locate dead elms, even stumps of elms cut for firewood or timber. They’ve all been shown to hold mushrooms.

Fishing below some dams, including smaller ones such as the Lafayette County’s Yellowstone River below the State Park have been crowded but no one is picnicking; they’ll all fishing.

Finding nature’s shed parts, including antlers, will be easier without snow. Knowing where hungry deer fed this winter (among evergreens and crabapples) can be key.

Trout are hungry, too, and their food chain is beginning to diversify. Activity is picking up on mild weekends.

We’re somewhat limited, however, with some cress, a few other greens, the beginning of chives, and mainly fresh fish.

Now’s a great time to begin gathering from nature with eyes, camera, or note pads before the green curtain drops in the deciduous forest.

— Jerry Davis is an Argyle native and a freelance writer who lives in Barneveld. He can be reached at sivadjam@mhtc.net or at 608-924-1112.