December was a month of appearing and then disappearing snow.  We had a few snowfalls, a few cold days, many misty melting days and not much sunshine.

Center Valley

 

Indian Grass Hillside

 

Hidden Oaks Savanna

 

Pine Point with misty sunshine

 

Center Valley

 

One of the coldest days with ice forming on the creek

 

Afternoon shadows

 

One of our winter projects has been to connect solar panels to the sound recorders so we don’t have to keep changing their batteries.  Several of them are on top of the hills in places that are difficult to get to when there’s snow on the ground.  In the past we’ve just let the batteries run down over the winter, but we’d prefer to have them keep recording and pick up the results once the snow melts.

We gave this recorder two solar panels.

 

Mike – checking to make sure the recorder is working.

 

I finished planting the last of the seeds I collected this year – mostly to enhance the wetland areas I planted last year.  This is the ruin of the old stone barn with native wetland plants – mostly Blue Vervain – coming up around it.

 

Indian Grass Point

 

Twisted Oak Savanna

 

A young (probably) Sharp-shinned Hawk eyeing birds near our feeders.  It stayed for at least an hour, sitting quietly until the birds stopped being spooked and cautiously started coming back.  I didn’t see it leave so I don’t know if it eventually caught anything.

 

A different day and a different hawk, but the same problem – woodpeckers – frozen still – waiting for a Sharp-shinned Hawk to leave.

 

This is video of an opossum collecting dry leaves to make a nest – I’d never seen this behavior before.  I think it built the nest in the big brush pile just out of range of the camera.   It must be a big nest – it made at least 15 trips past the camera with full tails of leaves.

 

Pines and morning sky

 

Hidden Oaks bench – too wet and cold to sit but still a good place to look out over the valley, especially when the sun is shining.

 

Sunset clouds

 

It snowed hard all day one day and we ended up with about 6 inches of beautiful white fluffy snow.

 

Sunrise and the pines

 

 

Sun and mist over the wetland

 

Wetland misty with melting snow

 

Several warm days and rain melted all the snow.

 

Here’s the view from Indian Grass Point two days in a row.  The first day was a little misty from melting snow; then the fog came in.

 

 

Tiny Marcie – in a panorama of the mist from Hidden Oaks Point

 

Bur Oak and Monarda

 

Indian Grass Point

 

Entrance to the Knife Edge Prairie

 

Rain and mist turned the moss green – it’s such a treat to see green plants in winter.

 

Freezing mist in the last few days has made for spectacular views.

Saw-tooth Sunflowers in the wetland

 

The path up to Indian Grass Point

 

Indian Grass Point – the white on the grasses is frozen mist

 

Twisted Oak Savanna

 

Prairie grasses with frozen mist

 

Field Thistle