Our Catskills Food Guide editor Jennifer Strom photographed this turkey making like a chickadee at a bird feeder in Roxbury today. After the cold, hard winter we've had, wildlife is especially stressed.
It's not just in the Catskills where animals are hungry. "Tough New York City birds" are having an equally rough time, according to the New York Daily News:
“It has been crazy,” said Cathy Horvath, who volunteers with Wildlife in Need of Rescue and Rehabilitation. “We’re getting calls about swans coming up to people begging for food and ducks crashing into pavement thinking it was water.”
Folks upstate have noticed similar behavior, according to a story in the Ithaca Journal:
“We’ve had a lot of deer go by here,” said Ron Rehner, of West Elmira, a residential area west of the City of Elmira that extends down to the Chemung River. “The other day, I saw eight of them. A month ago, there were two deer coming down the street, right in the street. In the spring, they will be down here really looking for whatever is coming up. I put out pansies, and they will just gobble them right down.”
Are you seeing hungry wildlife at this time of year? Send us photos. Click here to email a picture to julia.reischel@watershedpost.com.
