Does it feel like this winter hasn’t been as bad as last year’s?

It does to animals living in the woods and wild of Leelanau County, or at least, that’s what experts are saying.

Rich Earle, a wildlife biologist with the Michigan Department of Natural Resources field office in Traverse City, said that based on what he has seen in his visits around northern lower Michigan, including Leelanau County, animals appear to be doing fine.

“I know this winter hasn’t been too bad because I haven’t had to use the snow blower as much as last year,” Earle said. “Out in the woods, it hasn’t been as bad a winter. Initially, it wasn’t too snowy so people could hunt longer and that impacted the deer harvest.”

The recent thaw the area experienced has also had a positive impact on deer, according to Earle. “It gave them a chance to move around some out of their yarding areas, seek new areas with food,” he said.

Exactly a year ago, 136 inches of snow had fallen on the county – well ahead of this winter’s current total of 83.5 inches through last week. In addition, temperatures have not plunged into below-zero readings.

Earl said the big concern with deer at this time of year is the survival of fawns, and from what he has seen there doesn’t appear to be any problems.

“I haven’t seen any evidence of fawns dying due to exposure or starvation. They appear to be staying warm and fed,” he said. Earl also said he has received about the same number of complaints this year as he did in 2009 from farmers and orchardists about deer damage.

Sue Jennings is a biologist with the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore who has worked for the National Park Service for 23 years. Though she’s originally from Michigan, this is her first winter at Sleeping Bear.

“We haven’t received any complaints about the animals and we haven’t observed any increase in animals deaths or signs of problems,” she said.

Earle said that turkeys are among wildlife that have been doing well this winter.

“We are really north of their historic range, but the birds that do exist up here do well through migration and people feeding them,” he said. Turkeys will also find areas where corn was left standing. “They also can live on apples and fruit that weren’t harvested.”

Property owners help by putting out bird feeders. Earle said that’s a good idea, he suggested people may want to use a restrictive feeder. “Otherwise, they’ll have deer, squirrels, turkeys, you name it, eating from the feeder,” he said.

One bird species that could face struggles this winter is grouse, Earle said.

“Grouse often burrow into deep powder snow for protection and food purposes. We had deep powder for a while, but then it melted and froze so now we have a little bit of powder and a hard crust they can’t break through,” he said. “They can still eat buds of trees and roost in trees, but they do best when they can burrow into the snow.”

This weekend, meanwhile, is the Great Backyard Bird Count. The National Audubon Society and the Cornell Lab of Ornithology sponsor the annual event to encourage people to get outside and count the birds they see in their back yards. Visit http://birdsource.org/gbbc for more information.