Winter at Its Best...and more Kinglets

Winter Wilderness Birding with the Naturalist
Sun. Feb. 4 and Wed. Feb. 7

Since the New Year, I've been wanting, trying, wishing I could find a way to post an entry about three times a week. But the obstacle the past two weeks has been the arrival of real winter, and with it, the primordial urge to enjoy winter sports to the hilt before the season decides to duck out.

Everyone I know is finding ways to put their lives on hold so they can get in some backcountry skiing, cross-country skiing at Garnet Hill, and downhill skiing at Gore Mountain. Then there are the adventurous folks I know who have slipped crampons onto their boots for a hike up Crane Mountain (Yeah, it's icy on those rocks!). To be truthful, I can't keep track of all the day trips my friends are taking.

Today Sophie and I skiied all over a beautiful pond in the Siamese Ponds Wilderness. Funny, there was very little snow on the pond, but just enough to ski all over and into the marshy areas. We were the only ones out there; oh, I do love those Lewis & Clark moments.

Golden-Crowned Kinglets: I did promise more information on these tiny birds that spend all their time in the spruces and fir trees of the Adirondacks. One amazing fact about these birds is that they raise two broods each year. As soon as the first broods flies the coop, the mother immediately lays the second family of eggs. Meanwhile her mate continues to feed the first brood until they're ready to take over on their own.

Golden-Crowned Kinglets

During my snowy winter wilderness prowls, I've been watching the Golden-Crowned Kinglets. At times they evade me and my binoculars by hiding in the spruce-tops and balsam fir-tops. But at other times, I'm able to get a clear focus on them. They're such tiny birds, much smaller than chickadees. They dine all day on insects and their eggs, by pecking away at the spruce and fir trees.

I have much more I plan to say about them, but I have a deadline this afternoon and must rush away now until tomorrow morning.

But do join me on a Winter Wilderness Bird Hike on Sunday, February 4. Just 15 minutes from Gore Mountain!

A Word about Adirondack Coyotes

Ever since I met a coyote just four miles from the Boston city limits 17 years ago, I've been fascinated by this extraordinary canine. What's most amazing to me is the coyote's ability to thrive despite enormous efforts to eliminate or limit its population and range.

Many coyotes live very close to us here in our southern Adirondack home. Only very rarely do I see them, and usually only at night. When there's no moon, all I can see are their eyes, staring at me as I put the trash securely(!) in the garage. During the day I study their tracks and examine their scat, for a clue as to their current menu, which varies from month to month, season to season.

I search for their tracks, and love to photograph them and compare them with Sophie's tracks, with Zack's tracks (a Labrador neighbor), and with other dog tracks I come across. It is not always a simple task to distinguish coyote tracks from dog tracks. I can easily distinguish Sophie's tracks from a coyote's, because her front paws are so wide. The tricky task is to be positive I am viewing coyote tracks on hiking trails away from home.

Dogs tend to have a swaggering gait, a loose-legged bouncing run--how should I describe it best? They often run with exuberance, and their legs go all over the place. A coyote, on the other hand, usually travels with an economy of movement, each foot seeming to be precisely placed. But--and here's the big but--a dog is able to run or trot with a similar economy, so one cannot distinguish the tracks based on gait alone.

The individual coyote track is narrower overall than a dog track. This, too, is a generality. In addition, and here's what's really tricky, a dog's two outer toes or pads, one on each side, are angled slightly out away from the center of the foot. The coyote's print, in contrast, appears more compact, the toes appear closer together.

Please keep in mind, I am only discussing coyotes of the Adirondacks here. Western coyotes differ in many ways, and, though I've never compared them, the identification of tracks issues may be different, too.

All I Can Say Is "Snow!"

The leaves of the American Beech hang on all winter long.Yes, the white stuff has covered the Gore Mountain region, and dreams of snowshoeing and backcountry skiing have finally been fulfilled. Best of all, we have a chance of hanging onto it for at least awhile due to the wintry cold. Tonight we should bottom out at about one below zero.

Of the entire region, Indian Lake has the most snow, and North River has enough for some excellent skiing. So I'm ready to head out on the trails hugging Thirteenth Lake and on up to Peaked Mountain. If the weather stays cold, and if we keep getting shots of snow as we have been, there will be excellent snowshoeing on the bogs and ponds of the northernmost Siamese Ponds Wilderness.

Right here at the house, next to the southernmost SPW, there's not quite enough for snow sports, but the ground is beautifully frozen again after the mud of last week, and Sophie and I are able to "make the rounds."

Long-Term Weather Forecast: The National Weather Service has reported that seasonably wintry temperatures are to return as time goes along. Hmmm...They don't specify when, but you know what I'm hoping for!