A Cold and Snowy January

It's winter, all right! This January has been a month of very cold temperatures, and all those signs of life in my previous post have been buried under a secure blanket of snow for weeks now. The landscape is all white and brown and gray, with some dark-green conifers for good measure. Here's our meadow on January 19, for example, but this picture could have just as easily been taken on most days this month:

There's still plenty of life and activity to see above the snow, though!

This flock of House Finches looked quite decorative, arranged as they were at the top of a fir tree in our yard on January 19 (waiting for me to leave so they could come down to the feeders, I think):

Purple Finches are much less common visitors to our yard at any time of the year, but especially in the winter, so I've been happy to see a few stop by this month. I love the colors on this rosy-all-over male who perched in the apple tree outside our windows on January 23:

I've been thrilled to see American Goldfinches making good use of the dried seed heads of the Purple Coneflowers that grow in a flower bed near the house. I snuck open a window on a sunny January 22 to get an unobstructed view of these little birds at work -- I especially like the spiky shadow one of the seed heads is casting on the bird in this picture:

Although the sun was shining, the air was bitterly cold, so I kept the window cracked open only long enough for a few quick pictures; here's one more:

Did I mention that this has been a cold month? When I woke up on January 22, the outside temperature was -13 degrees Fahrenheit (!), and a Blue Jay outside our windows had frost ringing its face -- it's kind of a glamorous look, but spending the night outside in those temperatures doesn't sound fun to me!

This bold American Tree Sparrow came to the feeders on January 19 while I was nearby, so I got to have an especially close look at one of these very handsome birds:

I'd never noticed before how dark this sparrow's feet are, like it's wearing black gloves. And that's a dashing little bow tie on its chest. Here's one more picture of this fancy bird, at an angle where the rusty line behind its eye reminds me of a lightning bolt (I feel like I've just described a superhero's costume):

This past summer, I first noticed what I'm pretty sure is a large Common Barberry (Berberis vulgaris) bush tucked back along an edge of our property; I suppose I'll need to keep an eye on this plant -- and watch out for others -- since it's non-native and can be invasive. In any case, I was surprised to see a Dark-eyed Junco munching on this plant's berries on January 19, since I'm much more used to seeing juncos eating seeds:

Among the flock of Dark-eyed Juncos that's been hanging around our yard this winter, we have one individual with a smattering of white feathers:

I've been thinking of this individual as a female, because her coloring overall is browner and lighter than the starker male juncos, but I don't know for sure. Either way, she's very distinctive, and it's fun to have an easily recognizable individual bird visiting our yard:

I assume she's partially leucistic, which has to do with some patchy absence of pigments. The white feathers on her face look a bit like she's simply dusted with snow:

She even has a little white-edged feather on her wing, and the mostly-white back of her head is especially striking:

Even from a distance, it's easy to recognize this bird:

I hope that bright white patch doesn't make her a target for predators! Good luck out there, little bird, and we'll keep the feeders well stocked.

I don't get to see all the winter activity in our yard myself, but the snow keeps a record of unseen activity (until the next snowfall at least). Here's a neat trail of White-footed Mouse tracks crossing our yard on January 19, for example:

Finally, in our woods on January 5, I noticed this White Ash tree that's missing a great deal of its bark:

After some searching online, my best guess is that this is a sign that Emerald Ash Borers are indeed on our property; apparently woodpeckers will do this type of work on a heavily infested tree to get at the beetle's larvae under the bark. I knew that Emerald Ash Borers have appeared in our county in recent years, and I figured our many ash trees would be victims sooner or later. I suppose we've reached that time. Here's a closer look at this extensive woodpecker work -- I hope the woodpeckers got a good meal at least, and maybe this tree will make a good home for other creatures after it dies:

I wonder whether a particular one of our species of woodpeckers is mostly responsible for all that stripped bark, or whether all the woodpecker species contributed. It's hard to imagine our little Downy Woodpeckers (like the fellow below) chiseling away here, but who knows!

Male Downy Woodpecker working on a tree next to the meadow on January 19

The cold temperatures and snowy weather sure seem like they're here to stay for a while yet. Happy winter!

The Bulk of Spring: Part 2

To continue the previous post, I'm chronicling more of the amazingly rich goings-on at our house over the past couple of months. I haven't even finished with the birds yet!

Birds, continued
 
Many of the birds we saw in our yard in April and May were birds who were also around during the winter (maybe not necessarily these same individuals, but the same species at least). Familiar as they are, it's still nice to see these birds in the spring as well. For instance, Purple Finches have remained common visitors at our feeders; I've never had the chance to see Purple Finches so frequently before, and I've loved becoming more familiar with these birds (and I'm much more confident in distinguishing them from House Finches now). Here's a male Purple Finch posing nicely on the feeder:

The male American Goldfinches gradually molted into their highlighter-yellow outfits for the summer:

And before the leaves came in was a good time to watch this Downy Woodpecker demonstrating an excellent place to stash seeds from the feeder (many woodpeckers have now used this crevice in this apple tree for this purpose):

It was great to see a couple of familiar birds turn their attention to nesting in the spring, although I'm sorry to say that neither of the following two nesting attempts were successful. A Dark-eyed Junco built a nest right on the slope between the road and our yard; here's a picture of the mother on her nest (incubating eggs) on May 10:

The junco's nest was very well hidden -- I'd never seen a junco nest before, and I never would have seen this one if we hadn't accidentally passed too close and startled the female off of the nest. I hope it wasn't because of our closely-passing scent trails that the nest was raided by a predator sometime in the next week or so; on May 17, I found the nest abandoned and eggshell fragments nearby. Hopefully the juncos have had time to start a fresh nesting attempt in a new location.

Similarly, an American Robin set up a nest in a very neat-looking spot under our solar panels. I very much enjoyed receiving the adult robin's glares when walking along this edge of the meadow (this picture is from May 11):

But this nest, too, was a failure. Just yesterday (June 7), we found a pile of neatly-plucked juvenile robin feathers -- some of the larger feathers were still partially encased in sheathes -- on the ground near the solar panels, and the nest was empty. I'm guessing a hawk saw this nest and helped itself to the contents. Oh sigh. It's a tough world out there!

Wild Turkeys became a fairly common sight in our meadow this spring, and we got to observe lots of interesting behaviors from these big birds. Around dusk on April 30, a male and female turkey wandered into the back of the meadow, and the male proceeded to display his fancy feathers:

The female didn't seem especially impressed, but he kept at it:

While the male turkey was busy trying to impress the female, the female went about her business. She sat in a bare patch in the meadow, fluffed out her feathers, kicked at the dirt, and got a nice thorough dust bath:

It turns out that the bare part of our meadow is the perfect spot for turkey dust baths! Over the next couple of weeks, we saw turkeys bathing in the dirt here several times. I had no idea our property was so well suited as a turkey spa! Here's the bathing spot, a circle of nice, fine, kicked-up dirt:

And here's a video of one of the turkeys bathing away:

Even aside from the courtship displays and dust bathing, I've enjoyed seeing Wild Turkeys close to the house throughout the spring. They're such large birds, with so many subtly different patterns and colors in their outfit:

I like the sweet, closed-eyed look on this lady's face while she scratched herself at the edge of the meadow on May 17:

And when I went outside soon after taking the above picture, she swiftly moved away (looking very sleek in the process):

After this spring, the list of birds I've seen/heard in the yard is up to 86 species. I'm happy with that!

Amphibians and Reptiles

The property continues to be poor in reptiles (no signs of snakes or turtles or anything all spring). But the amphibian populations are strong. The choruses of Spring Peepers and Wood Frogs were especially loud in April, and the Gray Treefrogs and American Toads joined in more heavily in May. Most of this vocal and breeding activity seems to have taken place beyond our property's borders; I had been hopeful that the shallow pond in our woods would be a great place for amphibians to breed, but I only ever heard a few Wood Frogs calling from that area, and I haven't seen any signs of eggs or tadpoles. Even so, I loved hearing these amphibians, and we did get to see the occasional Wood Frogs and Spring Peepers out and about during the day. Several Red Efts (juvenile Red-spotted Newts) also showed up in our yard in May.

Insects and Others

Spring is also the time for the bugs to start coming out. I didn't pay too much attention to insects and arachnids this spring, but I did come across this incredibly ornate beetle in the genus Calligrapha (an appropriate name for this creature, I'd say):

And on one morning in late April, the still-brown meadow was decorated with small spider webs:

Plants

I'm still very much learning what plants grow on this property, and this spring held some nice surprises. At the beginning of May, I discovered a thriving patch of Ramps in our woods, conveniently close to the trail we built. We harvested a few of these leaves, but the vast majority of the patch is still there, and hopefully it will keep growing in future years:

Several patches of Trout Lilies (one of my favorite spring flowers) popped up in the woods as well, but the only flower I found this spring was way on the other side of the property, next to the road:

The woods across the street from our house were practically carpeted with White Trillium (Trillium grandiflorum) in early May; I only found one of these flowers on our property, but what a beautiful flower it was:

Our woods turned out to have thriving populations of Jack-in-the-Pulpit, along with several Dwarf Raspberry (Rubus pubescens) plants:

And Viola pubescens (commonly called Downy Yellow Violet, but our variety doesn't seem particularly downy):

Last fall, we seeded the bare part of our meadow with native grass and wildflower seeds. Some of the seeds we scattered have sprouted this spring; it's difficult to say exactly what all these seedlings are, but I'm learning to recognize some, like this darling little Wild Lupine (Lupinus perennis):



And it's always nice to enjoy the changing hillside views around our house; I think the new spring foliage (on May 16 in this picture) is almost as lovely and colorful as the same hillside in the fall:

I really do feel lucky to be able to live in this place, to be back in our house, and to be able to enjoy and care for this property. It's been almost a whole year since we started settling down here, and so much has happened already! Soon we'll start repeating seasons (starting with summer), and I'm excited to see what happens next.

Real New England

Paul and I spent this past weekend in New Hampshire, at the eastern end of the White Mountain National Forest. It was, simply put, amazing. I can't believe we've lived in Connecticut for so many years and not explored the states to our north until now. And I have to say, for all that Connecticut is technically part of New England, everything in New Hampshire felt just so much more New England-y than what we have in Southern Connecticut. The fall weather was lovely and crisp, we drove through cute towns and farms and forests and mountains, and we saw gorgeous scenery everywhere we looked. Of course, the magnificent fall foliage had a lot to do with that!

We did a lot of things during our brief trip, but the nature-related highlight was our visit to Mount Washington, the highest peak in the Northeastern U.S. at 6288 feet. We drove up the Mount Washington Auto Road, braving the narrow turns with no guard rails. The somewhat harrowing drive was 100% worth it, both for the things we saw on the way and the amazing views when we got to the top.

We got out of the car to walk around a few times during the drive, and the change in environment as we went up in elevation was amazing. At around the 2000-3000 foot level, the abundant clusters of Mountain Ash berries were extremely dramatic:

So many berries!

A few small birds were flitting around in this area, including this female Purple Finch (a bird I don't get to see very often in Connecticut):

Another couple thousand feet up and we were nearing the tree line. This might have been my favorite environment on the mountain, just because every plant here was so warped and weird. These fully-grown trees must have lived through some astonishingly harsh conditions to end up so small (about my height) and crooked; they look now like they're constantly being pushed by the wind, although there was hardly a breeze on the day we were there:

(We did learn that the Mount Washington observatory held the record until recently for highest wind speed on Earth. Poor trees!)

There were lots of little birds foraging in these small trees, too, but they mostly stayed under cover, so that the miniature forest seemed to be constantly chirping. As far as I could tell, most of these birds were Yellow-rumped Warblers and Dark-eyed Juncos. Hello, Junco on your tiny tree perch:

I just love how barren this whole area looked, especially compared to the lush, colorful, berry-laden forests on the lower mountain slopes:

And I am totally fascinated by these trees:

I described this place as "barren", but there were actually things growing all over. These things were just amazingly tiny. There were carpets of strawberry plants with multicolored leaves no bigger than my fingernail:

Edit: Huge thanks to Jackie for pointing out that these plants are actually most likely Three-toothed Cinquefoil (Sibbaldiopsis tridentata), a plant which thrives in alpine regions. I should've known better than to jump to conclusions about plant IDs in such an unfamiliar place as near the top of a mountain!

And bone-bleached woody plant stalks among the most perfect little rock gardens:

I don't know what kind of plant this is, but it looks like it should be tree-sized in any other environment, instead of the creeping, foot-wide (delicate, beautiful) thing it is here:

Even the rocks were green with big bright patches of lichen:

Finally, we reached Mount Washington's peak, and there were no more trees, not even tiny ones. Instead, there were rocks and lichen and clumps of brown grass, and astonishing views from the top of the world in every direction:

These mountains look like huge creatures to me, with their green-ridged backs:

So yeah, this was an awesome experience, and unlike anything I've seen before. (Although Paul and I have noticed that we tend to end up in high places on all of our trips together. We suspect that we have goat instincts.)

We made it back down the mountain safely and got to explore other wonderful things as well. In our other wanderings, we thought we might've found a Moose print on the edge of a muddy pond, and there were also the (possibly) Coyotes howling at night while we were getting ready for sleep. I would've loved to stay longer and see what other wildlife might show up, but our brief visit was awesome nonetheless.

At the end of our trip, we took a brief detour into Maine, which, as it turns out, is also beautiful:

Thanks for the lovely vacation, New England. Hopefully we'll get to visit again sometime soon!