frozen creek
it snowed again saturday night, heavy and wet this time, melting and refreezing on the sidewalk by this morning.
around sunrise and near dusk the last few weeks i’ve briefly seen foxes walking in the woods or taking shortcuts through the parking lot, always disappearing as fast as the appeared.
walking my dog this morning, we spotted one on the other side of the creek. she stopped, looked in our direction, and after a minute decided we weren’t worth worrying about before going back to what she’d been doing.
just before darting back into the underbrush
for 15 minutes we walked in parallel, each on our own sides of the iced over creek before she finally ducked into the brush and out of sight.
i went back out with my camera after we finished our walk. it had been half an hour, but to my surprise i ran into her again as soon as i got back to where i’d seen her earlier.
after weeks without any luck, i finally got a few pictures before she disappeared again.
plenty of birds today, and finally a good line of sight on a white-breasted nuthatch that miraculously stayed still (enough) to get some pictures.
first snow, 2025
it snowed over night and we worried that the sidewalks would freeze. inside, it was 64ºf when we went to bed. up before the sun, the snow had slowed but it thoroughly dusted the yard, sidewalk, and deck. fortunately, it stayed cold enough that the snow didn’t melt and refreeze, and the flakes were light enough that it hadn’t impacted the roads.
dark-eyed junco
the snow kept falling, getting wetter and heavier as the temperature crept above freezing. after walking my dog, i took my camera and went back out to the creek in the woods where we’d seen the most birds.
cardinal
juncos, white-throated sparrows, cardinals, goldfinches, and blue jays were everywhere; there were woodpeckers flitting from snag to snag, hammering the rotting wood; came across a few hermit thrushes, carolina wrens, and eastern bluebirds, a carolina chickadee, and a white-breasted nuthatch that wouldn’t sit still long enough to get a good picture.
eastern bluebird