Just Hangin out with Ev

This photo is of course me and my BFF Evvy.  I have a camera built in to my Mac, so it's really easy to take self-portraits. I can also change the color, or make pictures look like drawings, or Monet paintings!

Yesterday Ev and I went for a long hike with my sister, Kim, and her BFF, Ringo.  We walked from Stoddard to Granite Lake through the woods.  The snow was nicely packed by snowmobiles, on a trail barely used by them.  Kim saw and owl float through the trees.  I missed it, but found some Moose tracks that were badly melted.  No more recent activity.  No flocks of Turkey, but three or four together(judging from tracks).  The weather was perfect, and we never had to put on our snowshoes.  It took us about two hours to walk over Twin Hill to the old girl's camp on Granite Lake.  Kim is practicing up for a "hut to hut" backpack trip later this spring.  I'm happy to take her on all the trails I know....and that's quite a few.

For the Birds.

Spring is breaking out everywhere, and I'm psyched about that.  The little "Spring Tail" bugs are up and at-em.  The owls and other birds are already looking for mates.  This owl is a Barred Owl, and quite frequent in these parts.  I saw one just yesterday in the woods behind my house. He was only about 25 yds away, and low enough that I could make out his details very well.  I am amazed how silently they glide through the forest without hitting any branches.

I thought I'd seen the last of the "stink machines" this morning, because the trails have become solid ice.  But alas, the die hard "sledders" came roaring down the trail once again.  Their days are numbered now I think.  There are many bare spots, and bridges with no snow on them at all.  Maple sugaring starts right about now too, and will go through the second week or so, of March.  I love the smell of sap boiling.  Just down the road at Great Brook Farm, they'll be firing up the stove and likely serving "sugar on snow".  Can't wait.

Maybe it's spring

I saw one of these LBJs(little brown jobs) in my yard the other day.  They are very difficult to see until they move.  It's a Brown Creeper.  This bird is about the size of a chickadee, with feet like a woodpecker, and stiff tail feathers to keep him from falling over backwards.  He hops from the bottom of trees, upward and around the tree, picking over the bark for bugs.

These days it's beginning to feel more and more like spring is near.  The sun is stronger, warmer somehow.  My birdfeeder is being plundered by bigger creatures.  Activity everywhere.

Last night the moon was spectacular, nearly full(Snow Moon).  I didn't even need a headlamp to walk Evvy.  The fields, covered with snow were so bright against the night sky.

Big Owl, Big Pellets

I wasn't planning on making a post today, but...   I found these extraordinary owl pellets, and couldn't resist.  Actually it was Evvy that found them.  We were at the top of a hill, the wind was "blowing stink".   There were no trees up there, and we were passing through an opening in some fencing.  There on the snow at the bottom of a post, I saw several owl pellets.  It was as though this post was a frequent eating spot for a large owl.  It may have been a Barred, or a Great Horned Owl, or may.....be  a Snowy.  Wouldn't that be cool?!  Whichever owl it was, he was eating creatures that were bigger than mice.  Check out the bone below the pellet to the right.  The left end is an epicondyle of a leg bone.  You can tell because there is a capitulum and a trochlear surface, like on the head of a tibia.  Those surfaces are the articulating surfaces of hinge joints, like your elbows and knees.   The little bone in the picture looks to have been about 1 1/2" long, maybe a rabbit?  what do you think?

I have found owl pellets in the past, but these were by far the largest.