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The Vernal Pool
The yoga studio has its vernal pool again. After many many months of just a dry depression at the edge of the parking lot, it has arrived again thanks to many bits of rain over the past couple weeks, including 2 or 3 inches of rain yesterday. A vernal pool full of loads of potential…
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Checking Things Out
Letting everyone know that they’re checking things out. Often they come through, early to mid-January. Sometimes they stay and raise a family other times they move on to other areas. Hoping there will be Eastern Bluebirds (Sialia sialis) here for a while.
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Winter And Some Trees Still Have Leaves
This afternoon’s sun, lighting up the marcescent leaves of an American Beech (Fagus grandifolia). Trees that have marcescent leaves are trees that keep their leaves until spring when new leaves begin to grow and push the old leaves off and to the ground. It is still uncertain why this happens. There are thoughts though, including…
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Brightly Colored Lichen
There’s a rock wall, a tenth of a mile long, that parallels the lane approaching my cabin. Many, many years ago it was created to help the land above become a bit more level, for growing corn. Now all these years later those rocks have a remarkable amount of lichen growing on them. The brilliant…
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Not Quite
Today’s weather, not quite what I was hoping for. Yes, this morning there was first sleet, then freezing rain. But in what seemed like the blink of an eye it was gone. Turned to just rain. Actually it did happen more slowly than that, but by mid-afternoon the winter glam and glitter was gone. Ah…
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Garden In Winter
Gardens in winter can be a source of food for many animals. Let those seedheads stay for the birds to enjoy. This is a male Goldfinch (Spinus tristis) in his winter attire. Goldfinch are here year ’round. They come to my feeders for the black oil sunflower seeds that I put out, but they also…
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I Need To Make Some Suet For The Birds
Seeing movement some distance from me, I focused my attention on what was going on. Turns out it’s a male Downy Woodpecker (Picoides pubescens) visiting me today. This is the smallest woodpecker in North America. One that I often see, all year long. They’re fascinating and having them here year ’round makes me feel quite…
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In Winter At The Feeder Everyday
So long as I’ve got the feeder filled, this is one of the birds that shows up during the winter. Actually there are a few of them that come to get the black oil sunflower seeds. The Dark-eyed Junco (Junco hyemalis). This is one that showed up on Christmas Day to get its portrait captured…
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Graupel
Most of New Year’s Day, snow and graupel fell from the sky. Granddaughter and I were totally pleased to see it. If anything would stick, it would be the second snowfall of the winter season. The first was December 10th when the mountain received 2.75 gorgeous inches. As graupel falls, it isn’t necessarily obvious that…
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Beautiful Song
One showed up this morning. The first day of 2024. I always anticipate something special showing up on important days. This was that special something, a Hermit Thrush (Catharus guttatus). Not arriving for the seeds at the feeder, they’re not interested in that, but arriving to get a splash in the birdbath. And oh the…