Moisture and warmth will be the trigger for some animals but the length of day, or photoperiod, is a more reliable way to tell time on a yearly basis. Most wildlife living in our seasonal habitats have perfected ways to use a combination of cues to make sure they are in synch with their surroundings. Birds need to time their nesting period so their chicks have an abundance of food after hatching and hibernators try to wake up when plants begin growing to provide needed protein.   

Spring in the White Mountains of Arizona is the waking season for many varieties of wildlife. Not only do the songbirds -- like black-headed grosbeaks -- signal a new day well before the sun’s direct rays filter through the Ponderosa trees but many insects emerge from their underwater nymph or juvenile stages to metamorphose into the adult flying stage of dragonflies, mayflies and other land dwelling creepy crawlers. Many insects that don’t live underwater for the first stage of life have laid eggs the previous fall which pretty much enter a state of suspended animation to deal with the lack of food during the winter months.  

Honeybees can overwinter just fine during mild winters, with many wingless, infertile worker bees and one or just a few queens present in their hive. The winged males and females are greatly reduced during the winter. In contrast, native bumblebees, yellowjackets and hornets rely solely on a large fertilized queen bee to survive winter in a protected crevice and start a brand new colony each and every summer. Other insects can migrate to warmer climes, such as the monarch butterfly which can travel up to 2,000 miles to reach its wintering grounds in Mexico.

White Mountain mammals awaken from different lengths and depths of sleep. Ground squirrels and other true hibernators can finally relieve themselves and locate their first drink of liquid water after months underground in their “cozy” 50-degree F dens. Black bears, on the other hand, have probably aroused a few times already from their lighter form of hibernation to stretch and “do their duty” but are definitely hearing some louder growls from their stomachs as their metabolism starts to rev up and require the constant intake of fuels.

 So where are the bears that are usually rummaging through our garbage cans? Maybe local residents are doing a great job in preventing the bears from finding their garbage by keeping it in the garage or otherwise unavailable to the bears until collection day. Many bears have had to be killed in recent years because people made it too easy for bears to find food in town and they lost their fear of people and presented a public safety issue. So White Mountain residents may be learning how to better deal with “urban” wildlife but the weather this spring has also had an impact.

Moist weather nourishes the grasses and more succulent and nutritious forbs in the area as water can be the limiting factor to producing seed heads and flowers. Seeds and flowers are high in energy as they are designed to provide a baby plant with stored reserves to get it started. Native wildlife has figured this out and the bears are telling us that they prefer natural food over our garbage if given the choice during this moist spring. But that doesn’t mean some bears may “evolve” their feeding habitats if we make it too easy to get garbage or low hanging bird feeders. Or when things dry out before the monsoon season starts in earnest, we could see the delayed influx of hungry bears looking for a handout. So, we can’t slack off on keeping our garbage secure since a young dispersing bear looking for a new territory could be travelling through at any time. You don’t want to “snag” or “hook” it with garbage and make it feel comfortable.

With the widespread moisture we received this spring, wildlife doesn’t get as concentrated at water catchments or potholes. Elk and deer don’t just camp out near rivers or creeks called riparian areas and, instead, spread out their feeding impacts over a wider area, allowing plants to be browsed lightly enough to regenerate quickly. Concentrated wildlife tends to compete more with each other and also has a higher chance of passing on diseases and parasites.

Some ponds and puddles are filled only temporarily but they still provide critical water for big and small game and habitat for breeding amphibians. These ephemeral ponds might only have water for a month or two after snowmelt but the local wildlife takes full advantage of the moisture to increase their populations by having more young survive and supporting healthier adults. Mother Nature often produces more young than actually can survive, providing the raw materials for natural selection to occur amongst the critters with slightly different adaptations. In some years, a certain adaptation increases survival and reproduction while in other years it could be a different adaptation that keeps the animal alive longer. 

With lusher and greener habitat, we could be in for a bumper crop of baby critters this summer. More elk and deer twins may be possible so the cow elk and doe deer may have to split their time between two different areas where they stash their young. They might be close but are usually not right next to each other. Therefore, people may find an unattended calf or fawn and assume it has been abandoned. Unless the mother was hit by a car or preyed on by a dog or other predator, she is probably watching and waiting for you to leave -- so do that as soon as possible. A small amount of human scent will not discourage the mother from taking care of her young. You can report the location of the young animal to Game and Fish but don’t move it unless you want to reduce its chances of survival to almost zero. Biologists can’t try to rehabilitate members of the deer family in Arizona due to the concern of spreading the scourge called chronic wasting disease.

The only wildlife that you can legally feed in Arizona are songbirds and squirrels but you have to take measures to make sure other, unintended animals, like bears, skunks, javelina, coyotes, bobcats and mountain lions don’t start visiting regularly. If one of these more dangerous animals shows up at your feeders, you can temporarily stop feeding the squirrels and birds without causing them harm. They don’t depend entirely on your handouts and if they did, they might need a short wildlife weight watcher program to get back to their “body normal.” Even if your feeders are too high for bears to reach, sloppy birds often scatter seeds all over the ground so you may have to clean up their mess to be more confident you won’t be visited by something with larger claws and teeth.

Since we really can’t influence our short-term weather events, in contrast to the studies showing our influence on longer term changes, we should thank our lucky stars for a spring and summer hopefully without major fires and evacuations. This summer could be full of abundant wildlife that can be enjoyed at a distance. Try one of the many hiking and biking trails maintained by the TRACKS organization within the White Mountain Trail System or the paved highway SR273 from SH260 near Sunrise Park Resort to US Hwy 180 just north of Alpine. Make sure you go slowly enough on your White Mountain Safari to possibly see elk, pronghorn, deer, bighorn sheep, wolves, coyotes, bobcats, bear, lions, many species of raptors and dozens of different songbirds. Don’t forget your binoculars and field guides!