Sat 13 Feb 2010
Signs of the Season: Winter
Posted by Nicole under Fun and Games, Habitat
1 Comment
So with all this snow, I got to thinking about signs of the seasons (I also got thinking about the snow storm of ’78 when I was a kid up in MA and the fun we had making tunnels! but that would be another blog topic all together).
In addition to snow, of course, there are other elements in nature that are winter through and through and when we think of them we may be brought back to some memory from younger days or think of some activity in anticipation.
So, I decided to make a list of things that make me think of winter and thought I’d share some of them here with you:
- Dark-eyed Juncos with those charcoal eyes and pink beaks
- White-throated sparrows calling “oh sweet Peabody, Peabody, Peabody”
- White-crowned sparrows so regal
- Wildlife tracks that I can clearly follow through a woods in snow
- Icicles forming on eaves
- Structures of trees without leaves
- Leaf buds on tree branches closed up tightly
- Crisp clear night skies with piercing stars
- Birds of prey hunting over farm fields and meadows and more easily seen in trees
- Leaves as insulation
- Roosting, flocking, sleeping in
What are some of the things that jump out for you in winter?
Thank you for sharing this collection of winter imagery (including the fond memories of building tunnels in the Blizzard of ’78!)…You have inspired me to add a few more wintry musings:
- The thick sound of air that is heralding impending snow…
- The soft sound of snow falling or the clinking of ice crystals blowing in quiet woods…
- Snow crystals sparkling like glitter in the moonlight…
- A peppering of snowfleas in a melty footprint…
- Sitting by the warm woodstove with a hot drink and field guides (and maybe also the digital camera) to find further information about things that were seen on cold winter walk (because either I did not bring the right field guides with me on the walk, or because when I was out on the trails I was averse to stopping and taking off my mittens to fumble through the pages with clumsy, wind-chilled fingers)…
- Winter beech trees, beacon-like among the skeletal silhouettes of their leafless neighbors, their faded papery orange leaves brightening the landscape and dancing in the wind…
- Skunk cabbage shoots, tightly furled, sticking up from a shallow wet area, reminding me that Nature knows that Spring will be coming…
- Rafts of white ice being carried along by the river’s waters…
- The sound of woodpeckers foraging or drumming close by or in the distance…