“Those who wish to pet and baby wild animals love them. But those who respect their natures and wish to let them live normal lives love them more.” ~ Edwin Way Teale

“Mommy, where do the birdies go when it rains?” I remember asking that very question when I was a little girl. I must not have been given a good enough answer because I have continued to wonder where not only birds but also larger wild animals go during inclement weather. Years ago, as animals were domesticated, they were inadvertently removed from their instinctive places of shelter.

While many smaller critters will seek shelter in a storm, cattle might not always do so. Worse, cattle may sometimes try to seek shelter under a tree, one of the most dangerous spots during a thunder and lightning storm.

My grandma Nellie May grew up on a farm in Kansas. She was the daughter of an immigrant wheat farmer. With an ever-expanding demand for meat, other than pork, Black Angus cattle were added to the farm’s assets. In January 1896 man and beast were stricken by a massive weather-born natural disaster: a blizzard.

My grandma recalled, “We all went outside to assess the damage to our herd of cattle. I remember our father being greatly concerned and us children crying upon seeing the cows lying on their sides, either struck by lightning or frozen.

Farm families in the Midwestern U.S. often experienced and were no strangers to the coldest weather in the United States. Many claimed they knew the extreme weather was coming before it was officially predicted. Farmers would say they know the cold was coming days before it arrives. This foresight was not due to meteorology but to the way their animals were behaving. It was noted the animals were eating far more feed than usual, putting on weight to help keep warm before temperatures plummeted. As quoted by an unknown farmer, regarding his cows, “They were meeting us at the gate, filling themselves full, and we just knew.”

Anecdotal evidence like this suggests that animals can, to an extent, predict the weather. However, it has never been scientifically proven.

Come this weekend is rain … well, I’m not so sure about that as there is much discrepancy among the meteorologists, especially in the southern parts of the state. A big cooling is a near certainty with 10 to 15 degrees of cooling on tap for Saturday. Highs around 65 degrees are expected. There’s a slight hope for a bit of rain Saturday night. Little warming is expected across the coasts and inland valleys on Sunday while cooling continues across much of the southern parts of California. And then? The thermometers begin their climb out of winter and toward summer; i.e., a warm-up, once again.

So … where do they go? (The birdies.)