We woke up this morning to a few inches of gorgeous snow on the ground. It's been raining all afternoon, so the snow is distinctly less gorgeous now, but I jumped at the chance to take some pictures from our apartment's windows while the scene lasted.
A pair of Red-shouldered Hawks has been hanging around our yard recently, and they were camped out in the trees across the street pretty much all morning:
These are some very handsome birds, and I'm glad they seem to like our neighborhood. :)
And when a few Black-capped Chickadees started foraging in the Red Cedar trees outside our window, I couldn't resist them. What's cuter than a chickadee? A chickadee in the snow!
With snow covering the branches, these guys knew to look for food from below:
I love having these wonderful little creatures around!
Yay, snow!
I was driving to Osbornedale State Park this afternoon when I saw something totally unexpected.... A bat flew down the road, just over my car!
I can probably count on one hand the number of times I've seen bats in Connecticut. (In case you didn't know, White-Nose Syndrome is a new disease that's been horribly decimating north-eastern bat populations in recent years.... Perhaps that's why I hardly ever see bats now.) Not only was this bat at close range, but it was out during the day, and in winter, no less! So even though I was on a fairly busy residential road, I just had to pull over and get out of the car to see this awesome creature. People, there's a bat flying over your driveway!
This bat was flying back and forth along a short stretch of the road, presumably hunting insects. At this point in the afternoon, the temperature was just over 50°F, and I did see some flying insects later in the day, so perhaps this was a good area for a bat to find food. My best guess is that this was an Eastern Red Bat, a tree-dwelling species, and I have read that these bats do sometimes wake up on warm winter days to feed. (Here's hoping that's actually the reason, and not that this bat was ill.)
I would have loved nothing more than to just sit and watch the bat zooming around, but unfortunately people kept stopping their cars and coming out of their houses to make sure I was OK. (Which was nice of them, but I had to keep explaining that everything was fine, I was just taking pictures of a bat. Yep, totally normal.) So I couldn't stay too long without feeling like a complete creeper. Also, bats are insanely hard to photograph! (Birds fly, too, but they don't zig-zag.) Here's the best and closest picture I ended up with, in which you can just barely see its little ears and eyes (and a tiny hole in its wing):
So yeah, bats are awesome. I actually reported this sighting to the CT DEEP, because their website asked for reports of bats flying in winter. Hopefully this wonderful auburn fellow got a nice meal, and will enjoy a safe sleep until spring!
[Update, 1/17/13: I just heard back from Connecticut's DEEP, and this was indeed an Eastern Red Bat! Apparently these bats typically migrate south (and out of CT) for the winter, but there have been more reports of Eastern Red Bats than usual this fall and winter, possibly as a result of Hurricane Sandy. How interesting!]
Highlights from my subsequent (less eventful) walk in Osbornedale State Park include a few Mallards taking advantage of some remaining ice in the pond as a place to rest and stretch:
And some fantastically gruesome-looking Blackberry Knot Galls (deformities on blackberry stems caused by the larvae of a small wasp, Diastrophus nebulosus):
Weeeeird!
Spring-like days and dark, damp woods are lovely, but I'd like some more snow this winter, please!
I visited Southford Falls State Park this morning, where I was happy to find a couple of inches of snow still on the ground, and a lovely iced-up pond:
We probably won't have scenes like this for long, since it looks like we'll have 50-degree temperatures and rain in a few days.... So these wintry sights will have to last me until our next snowfall!
One of my favorite things about this park is its big rocks in the woods -- the results of ancient glacial activity:
These blocky structures are quite imposing, but the moss and snow soften their edges a little:
I love this rock's shelf of greenery under its snowy blanket:
Snow and ice are pretty, but some parts of the path were downright trecherous (don't go this way!):
In another spot, the snow preserved a fascinating footprint (my foot provides a size comparison):
Dinosaur?! Well, I guess probably not, although that actually was my first thought. (We recently visited Dinosaur State Park, which features hundreds of preserved dinosaur footprints that look remarkably like this one -- so I had dinosaurs on the brain.) Barring a prehistoric visitor, then, I'm guessing this is the mark of a vulture, or possibly some other large bird of prey. [Edit: Or a Wild Turkey! Thanks to Quodlibet for the suggestion.]
The park's stream brought some cool sights as well, including this icy skirt beneath a large rock:
And myriad ice-islands centered around smaller rocks in the water:
Towards the end of my walk, I was admiring some dangling Alder catkins (which will bloom and turn orangey-yellow in the spring):
While a couple of extremely obliging (i.e., fearless) Black-capped Chickadees foraged just a few feet away from me. These guys must've been finding some tasty morsels in these twigs, because they were digging into the wood with woodpecker-like intensity:
I actually saw bits of wood flying as they worked away:
One chickadee came especially close for a few seconds, so you'll have to pardon a brief burst of pictures -- these creatures are just way too adorable, and I can't resist them:
Goodness, but you're gorgeous:
I really just want to snuggle this creature and its fluffy, fluffy belly:
The world is definitely better with snow and woods and chickadees. :)
I'm amazed at how well our snow from last Saturday has stuck. I'm used to seeing snow turn to grayish mush and disappear after a few days around here, but it's been a week now without any new precipitation, and the snow still looks surprisingly pristine:
Osbornedale State Park gave me lots of things to explore yesterday morning, lot least in the snow itself. Criss-crossing with the people-trails (full of boot prints and ski tracks) were many sets of deer paths, where hooves left deep, clear impressions in the snow:
And much of the snow under the brush showed the tracks of little hopping sparrows (there's even a perfect pair of avian footprints on the left in this picture):
All the usual winter birds were out and about, including this male Downy Woodpecker (so cute!):
And several White-throated Sparrows gave me somewhat unusual views. This bird happened to take off just as I snapped a picture, showing (who knew!) yellow feathers under its wing:
I watched a couple of these sparrows munching on bittersweet berries -- these plants are invasive, but the birds do seem to like them. [Edit: To clarify, there are two species of bittersweet, American and Oriental, and it's the Oriental Bittersweet that's invasive.] I love the bird's clinging claws in this picture, and its brightly-patterned face with the goopy red berry; too bad about all those branches in the way:
Mmmm, goopy berry:
Unfortunately, it looks like we'll have slightly warmer temperatures and possibly some rain in the next few days.... I'm glad I got out to enjoy the snow while I could!
We're back in Connecticut now, after our holiday exploits, and we settled back in just in time for winter to really start. Yesterday's constant snowfall (hooray!!) left a thick blanket of the white stuff everywhere, so the first thing Paul and I did when we woke up this morning was to head out for a walk through the snow-covered woods of Naugatuck State Forest.
I'm glad we chose the morning for our adventure, because the snow was still clinging mostly undisturbed to the trees (the sun and wind meant that most branches were bare by the afternoon). And even better, we were absolutely the first people in these woods. Is there anything more wonderful than a woods-walk through perfectly new, unbroken snow?
(Actually, the snow's surface wasn't quite unbroken -- a few deer had walked these paths before us, and you can make out some of their tracks in the picture above.)
I love how trees look in the snow, and we got to see some really beautiful scenes next to this wood's mostly-frozen ponds:
Can I just stay out here forever?
Everything is prettier with snowy highlights:
Two Red-breasted Nuthatches showed up during our walk, and it was cool to see these creatures in a more wintry environment:
These nuthatches were especially puffy (and therefore especially adorable), all fluffed up against the cold:
Happy winter, little puffball!
I'm looking forward to many more snowy days to come. :)
