Journal for February 22, 2006

It was very cold and wintry this week – we woke up one day and it was minus 25 degrees with a brisk wind. I didn’t even go outside that day. The next day was better – only minus 10 and the wind had calmed down a little. We bundled up in two layers of everything and went for a walk.

When it’s this cold the snow stays powdery and fresh, and the animal tracks show up well. It’s fun to try to figure out the stories from the tracks.

Here’s a mouse track – you can see the slap of its tail against the snow.

This is the track of a coyote wandering along our path in 3 Finger Valley.

This is a place where either a hawk or an owl caught a small animal. It was next to a spot that the deer had scraped free of snow. I didn’t see any small mammal footprints, so either the predator was an owl (they hear and can catch their prey under the snow), or a hawk (or Golden Eagle) caught its prey at the edge of the bare patch.

This is the disturbed area, with lots of big wing prints.

The two deep prints here are from the bird’s feet.

I disturbed a Red Squirrel in the woods – it sat on a dead tree stump and chattered and shook its tail at me. You can see the end of its tail vibrating in the picture.

Another find in the woods was some Wood Ear Fungus. This is one of the Jelly Fungi – I’m not sure which species but I think it’s Auricularia aurica-judae. Its similar to the fungi used in oriental dishes like Hot and Sour Soup. I like the way the light shines through it – it really does look like ears.

The Knife Edge looks beautiful in the winter – it’s easy to see the steep slopes that gave it its name.

The front of the Knife Edge bluff is rocky and sandy and faces south, so in the winter when the sun shines it gets quite warm. It usually loses its snow much faster than other areas, and even in the coldest weather the snow is often melting. Here’s some ice that’s been melting and has gotten so thin that you can see through it.