Like white-tailed deer, tree squirrels are prevalent and attention-grabbing year-round.

They take from chickadee feeders during winter and gnaw into barn-stored vehicle wires then, too. Early spring finds them devouring maple tree buds and frozen crabapples. Up to two litters of kittens are born throughout summer, before they take and store the early hard mast of autumn.

Squirrels are open season in fall and winter and for landowners, their family members and land occupants the season is continuous, but rarely exploited.

Little wonder some hunters refer to squirrels as little deer who live in trees.

The gray squirrels in particular have a fondness for maple, which provides emergency food, even staple nutrients at times in seeds, buds and most assuredly the sap leaking from breaks in bark and taps provided especially for squirrels and birds.

These amazing rodents have an olfactory system that won’t fail. If a pile of sunflower fruit shells has one seed still within a husk, a gray squirrel will find it, or if snow cover is a foot deep, no acorn or hickory nuts is safe to germinate come spring. No, it’s not memory but nut odor.

Spring, summer and autumn are also mushroom times and squirrels who don’t seem to mind any amanita, even a death angel.

While fox and gray squirrels are generally taken as small game, reds, and two species of flying squirrels provide hours of enjoyment in city parks, under, on top of, and inside bird feeders.

Snow melt didn’t disappoint this late February and “shed” hunters are now searching. Squirrels rarely let an antler lay for long before gnawing begins. A fallen antler may be a reasonable location to sit and wait, .22 cal. rifle in hand.

Wayne Smith’s raccoon hounds know spring means field trials beginning. “The nine-year-old male is awake and barks at 6 a.m.,” Smith said. “He knows; he senses it.”

Late winter requires extra caution, says Doug Williams, at Portage. Poor ice is number 1. “Squirrels are chasing one another, the geese are back, and turkeys have already changed their daily patterns, hunters should notice.”

Maple syruping weather has been ideal with individuals and family groups busying themselves with a tree or two, or an entire hillside.

Individual collecting containers or thousands of feet of plastic tubing are clear evidence of pancake syrup in the making.

The 2021 lake sturgeon spearing season ended with 1831 fish registered. Spearing in Lake Winnebago lasted 16 days, whereas the Upper Lakes closed much earlier after quotas there were reached.

In spite of a caviar caper still being ironed out, the sturgeon spearing season structure offers great opportunities to spearers, observers and season followers. Deer and turkey seasons transfer some of that organization to their advantage.

The shortened Wisconsin gray wolf season totaled 218 animals after a cut-short three-day season. The over-season registrations must have many using the term endangered in opposite ways. Taking time to plan should get most of those knots untied.

Spring things are popping up and being exposed by the sun’s melting. A number of bird species have been reported, including robins and bluebirds and also ma and pa red-winged blackbirds, poorly matched. Swans, wood ducks and a few others are here, too.

A number of perennial bald eagle nests are still without an incubating pair. Accidents and deaths do happen, including a male eagle succumbing to lead toxicity in eastern Iowa County. If he was a mate, did the female have time to reconnect? Eagles sometime build axillary nests and switch back and forth leaving one nest empty.

Morning sounds are being dominated by bird calls, including turkeys and ruffed grouse, chickadees, cardinals, and crowing pheasants.

Buds are expanding on red and silver maples, willows can be forced to finish catkin expansion indoors and a little digging can uncover some happy and warm flowering skunk cabbage plants.

Remember willow trees come in two types, those with pollen catkins and others with seed catkins. The ones with fluffy “cats,” are the developing pollen catkins. Within several hours of indoor warmth the flower bud scales begin to open, and the catkin stalks push forth.

Unfortunately, new spring fishing gear is scarce, according to Don Martin, in Monroe, and Williams in Portage. Don’t overlook shopping early and stopping at every yard and garage sale on the way. Towns have spring “clean sweep” days, and what some residents toss, we might be able to use from bank or boat.

— 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.