Fresh Snow, Blue Sky, Animal Wanderings

The snow pie condition that I described last week is now covered by one to two inches of powdery snow that fell during the day on Friday. This, combined with a blue sky weekend (albeit still cold), significantly brightened my mood. If we are to have cold, windy winter days, it feels so much warmer when combined with fresh snow and sun.

The woods come alive after a fresh snow with stories of animal movements. The dogs and I visited a favorite nearby conservation area (Piscassic River Wildlife Management Area).

Saturday morning we ventured farther along a woods road that is gated and rarely traveled by other people. The forest is mostly hemlock mixed with red and white oak--a favorite area for deer in winter. A place where they can paw through the snow to get acorns and where snow depths are kept low by the hemlock cover.

We saw lots of deer sign: many patches where snow and leaf litter were churned up, tracks criss-crossing our path, piles of pellets. And Henna's keen ears and eyes were on high alert. She gets excited in deer country, which is why she is always on leash.

We see deer sign year round and on nearly every hike. It is the wanderings of small to midsize mammals that really emerge after a fresh snow fall. Some of my favorites...

snowshoe hare hopping through underbrush, 

straight line tracks of fox and coyote,

dainty tracks of woodland mice,

walking and then jumping,

maybe to escape the clutches of a coyote or an owl

All the more beautiful in the shadows cast by the low, winter sun.

A Cold Spell

It takes only a couple days straight of below freezing temperatures for me to stop complaining about a too-warm, tropical-like December. That sounds lovely now.

After a balmy start to the New Year, this week brings cold, cold, cold. It all started Saturday night with a storm that brought snow, sleet, freezing rain, rain, ice, slush, fog. The forecast for Sunday was to warm into the mid-40s by the afternoon. Maybe it would melt. I hedged my bets though and slogged in the morning to clear the driveway of wet, heavy snow. A good thing as the thermometer never got above 34 F. I note now, a few days later, that folks who did not clear the two inches of slush/ice/snow are stuck with an icy driveway for a week.

One benefit from the storm is that birds are flocking to the feeders in big numbers. With the lingering gray sky and muted sun, it is nice to see the bird life: 50+ mixed group of goldfinches and pine siskins, a foursome of bluebirds, juncos, hairy and downy woodpeckers, nuthatches, purple finch and house finch pairs side by side, mourning doves. But where are the chickadees? They seem strangely absent. And the chipmunks have certainly, finally, gone dormant until the next warm-up.

Storm precipitation and temperature fluctuations left behind a pie-like snow cover: an icy sheet on the bottom, a shallow filling of soft snow, and a crunchy topping. But much less satisfying than a tasty pie. Kodi, Henna, and I managed a decent walk in the woods this morning. There is just enough crunchy topping to get a grip and avoid skids and cuts. However, watch the sidewalks, some are still treacherous with a veneer of sheer ice.

The low point temperature-wise will be Wednesday night/Thursday morning: below zero prediction. And windy. 

Rattlesnake Knob and Baby Carriage Brook

Happy New Year from Rattlesnake Knob and Baby Carriage Brook on the Holyoke Range in Amherst, Massachusetts.

It's just a one-hour (at a brisk pace with two dogs) round trip hike that starts a short distance from my parents homestead, so I do it often. The trail ascends through beautiful oak-beech woodlands to a saddle between Long Mountain and Mt. Norwottuck, the highest mountain in the Holyoke Range.

The final climb to Rattlesnake Knob is a steep ascent that ends in two excellent views--one east to Long Mountain and the other north into the Town of Amherst.

The short spur trail that I took meets the 114-mile Metacomet-Monadnock Trail. I have yet to tackle the whole route.

Baby Carriage Brook is a lovely mountain stream that flows along a portion of the trail (or more appropriately stated the trail follows alongside the brook for a bit.). The water is clear and cold and laughing as it wanders through the woods down the mountain slope. In spring its banks are dotted with skunk cabbage, ferns, and false hellebore.

The only clear indications that it is winter and New Year's Day, was the temperature, which hovered around 28 degrees Fahrenheit and also the ground was frozen enough to make for easy hiking. A slight breeze, blue sky, sweet clear air: a refreshing and wonderful start to 2015.

December End

Near normal, colder temperatures just arriving to close out December. For the past week, the thermometer barely dropped below freezing at night and daytime temps reached high 40s to low 50s. Colder weather will ring in the New Year, then a storm looks to be brewing for the weekend. However, longer range forecasts predict a warming trend again by mid to late January.

As the warm weather lingered through much of December, signs of more spring-like conditions were evident: a guy running in shorts, motorcycle riders, cyclists, active chipmunks with cheek pouches stuffed with seeds, open water everywhere, a great blue heron, mud, fog, deer ticks, green grass growing in our yard.

Merry Christmas from Champlain Valley

Christmas Day: mid 40s, a hint of blue sky, icy driveways, and spectacular views from the farm fields of Charlotte, Vermont across Lake Champlain to the snow-capped Adirondack Mountains.

Christmas Eve

Well, it won't be a white Christmas and it won't be cold. The high temperature forecast for Christmas day in Newmarket is 56 degrees Fahrenheit, and a third day of rain, sometimes heavy.

The woods are wet. The ground is soggy. Mosses, mushrooms, and lichens are flourishing in this temperate rainforest of December 2014.

Winter's Eve

A sloppy December so far, mostly rain and fluctuating temperatures. The ground is bare and barely frozen. The weather forecast for Christmas Eve predicts heavy rain and a high temperature of 51 degrees Fahrenheit. A white Christmas it will not be.

Tonight, this winter's eve, we welcome the longest night of the year and the approach of a new moon on Tuesday. On our pre-dawn walk with Kodi and Henna this morning, the air crisp and clear, our eyes wandered to the horizon and the sliver moon. In this phase, the old moon is said to be clasping the new moon. We paused to marvel at the dark star-studded sky, the hint of light on the horizon, the sliver moon, the quiet on a mid-December Saturday morning, before most people were stirring and shopping.

We went for a second walk with the dogs a few hours later, the temperature still below freezing, as it should be in December. Hoar frost decorated plants and a thin veneer of ice coated wetland waters.

A lovely winter's eve.