Frigid Fridays - the Weekend Weather Post

Weather update for the weekend of

18-20 December 2009

Friday, 18 December:

Sunny with a high of 18*F and a low overnight of -6*F

Saturday, 19 December:
Sunny with a high of 22*F and a low overnight of -1*F



Sunday, 20 December: Cloudy with a nigh near 23*F and a low overnight of 4*F



The rest of the week looks like it will be overcast; no new snow is currently in the forecast.

**Weather is subject to change without notice**

Current snow conditions: We have almost a foot of snow. The initial snow was fluffy, followed by some perfect packing snow earlier this week. This has subsuquently frozen and been topped with about four inches of new fluff.

This just in: There is at least two feet of snow at Marcy Dam, with estimates of at least three feet of snow on Mt. Marcy. Do not attempt to do backcountry hiking in the Eastern High Peaks Wilderness Area without snowshoes. They are required by law.

Another New Toy

Our friends Nancy and Lois, the owners of the WildBirds Unlimited shop down in Wilton, recently donated a BirdCam to the Newcomb VIC. After gorging ourselves at our volunteer breakfast this morning, we broke it out and set it up on the back deck. We had it set for taking videos, and here are some of the images it captured.

First, we have a lot of chickadees.

And if you look closely at the very end of the second clip, you'll see a hairy woodpecker come in to feed on the solidifed bacon grease we put out this afternoon. Yum - all the birds are lovin' the fat!

More to come as we work out the wrinkles.

Coming Soon

We get a lot of phone calls this time of year asking about snow conditions. The VICs used to have a weekly snow report on their website, but with the departure of our PR person, that option is no longer maintained.

So, I am going to take on some of this responsibility by posting a weekly snow report here, on this blog. Look for it on Fridays.

Because of logistics, the snow report will only be for Newcomb. If you are planning a trip elsewhere in the park, I recommend you look up the weather report for that area on the National Weather Service's website. Just enter the city, state of your destination.

Dang - I Missed It

I was kind of looking forward to looking at the Geminids Sunday night/Monday morning, but it was heavily overcast and the only white things shooting across the heavens were snowflakes (although some of them were pretty impressive).

Still, I did see one "shooting star" Saturday night while standing on the back steps waiting for Toby to return from his rounds of the yard.

First Snowshoe Hike of the Winter

The sun was out and so was I. It was time to strap on a pair of snowshoes and hit the VIC's trail system. A couple people had already broken trail earlier in the week, but I was the first staff to go out since the snow arrived.

My official goal this trip was to put up ski signs, but as always I made it a priority to look for animal tracks and other interesting signs of winter. I was surprised at just how much ice was on the water at the lake's outlet. A week ago it was raining and the only ice to be seen was on puddles first thing in the morning.

I was excited to see how the snow and ice had impacted The BeaverWorks, so I made them my first destination. The lower dam, next to the Sucker Brook Trail, is now really obvious: the snow-covered ridge of the dam stands out like a sore thumb. Normally, as in "pre-beaver", the Little Sucker Brook remained flowing along here most of the winter. Now we have sequential frozen ponds.

The front of the big dam has a suspicious "slide" on it. I suspect that instead of being a genuine slide, from an otter, for example, it is actually just a spot where the water kept flowing over the top of the dam, preventing snow from building up. There was no water flowing over it today.

This is the view across the top of the big dam. I'm not sure I would trust my weight to the ice, but no doubt some small critters have already given it a try, and more will likely continue to do so as the winter wears on.

A week ago you could see the lodge and food pile across the pond. Nothin' doin' today, that's for sure. I hope the beavers are all snug in their home, for they are certainly frozen-in now.

I had nothing with me that I could use to show scale, so you'll have to take my word for it that this hole was made by a red squirrel. Not only will they scamper along on top of the snow, but they will also tunnel right through it when the situation arises.

Mouse tracks were quite numerous. Note the tail drag, which makes them pretty easy to ID:

Ruffed grouse tracks are pretty hard to mistake for anything else. These chicken-like birds shuffle through the snow leaving pretty distinctive paths behind:

As I shuffled along the Sage Trail, I heard a loud whacking sound, and soon located a male hairy woodpecker working away at a tree.

He was quite industrious, but the little tree in front kept getting in the way of a good photo!

I finally moved off the trail so I could get a better view, but I must have gotten too close, for after about thirty seconds, he flew off to another tree, where I could hear his renewed search for food.

Next year's leaf buds were already green and swollen on the blackberries...just like the pussy willows in my yard last week.

For the last few weeks, ash seeds have been obvious all over the ground. They continue to fall, for they are scattered on top of the snow now. I picked this one up and noticed noticed something rather odd about it: it has three "wings." In cross-section, it would look like a beechnut.

Normally, ash seeds are flat, having just the one papery "wing" above the seed. Here you can see a regular ash seed (on the left) next to the mutant one I found:

Why is this seed different?

At one point the snow was just covered with balsam fir seeds. Had they blown out of cones whose scales had opened? Or were they leftovers from a squirrel's meal?

Some little critter, probably a squirrel, was flinging all sorts of debris from the hole at the base of this tree.

The snow was littered with seeds and cone scales.

Looking carefully at the seeds and cone scales, I saw they were not only scattered on the ground at the base of the tree, but they were also stuck in the snow on the side of the tree.

So the squirrel must've been snacking from up in the the branches, dropping debris below.

I ended my walk at the back deck, which was covered with wee little bird tracks; this set probably belongs to a chickadee.

So there you have it: the first snowshoe hike of the season. Conditions are good, so all are invited to come and hike the trails at the Newcomb VIC!

Digital Camera - Don't Leave Home Without It

As usual, Toby and I head out for our walk this morning. I'm not a couple hundred feet up the road when I hear something.

At first, it's normal blue jay vocalizations, but then it changes, into this strangled-sounding "JaaaayyyyJaaaayyyyy" that went on non-stop.

"That's interesting," I thought. "Could a cat have caught a jay?" (Unfortunately, our local feral cat population has risen dramatically this year.) Then a whole bunch of jays fly off screaming from the trees on the opposite side of the street from which the sound was coming: the rest of the family was getting out of Dodge. So much for familial unity.

I look over towards where the sound was and see a dark shape on the ground below a cedar. Upon closer inspection, it turns out to be a sharpshin hawk with a freshly caught (and very much alive) blue jay. I can see the jay's wing fluttering beneath the hawk. I keep walking, hoping for a better view (and mentally kicking myself for not bringing the camera, which I actually debated while donning hat, coat, mittens and leash this morning), and when I round the snowbank, apparently it is too much for the hawk. It flies up, apparently trying to haul its catch away with it, but at about five feet above the ground the two birds separate.

The hawk takes off eastward, and the jay struggles up into the branches of a young maple. It shakes itself, looks around, and takes off across the street in search of its traitor family. All that remained of the brief struggle was the imprint in the snow where the hawk pinned the jay to the ground (and if I hadn't seen it happen, I never would be able to guess it from the snowprint).

The moral of this story: always, always, ALWAYS take the camera with you! That's why you bought the bloody thing in the first place!!!

Geminid Meteor Shower - Coming Soon to a Field Near You

Thanks to my good friend Tom for giving me a heads-up on the forthcoming Geminid Meteor Shower, which will be peaking this Sunday night/Monday morning (13/14 December 2009). According to info available at assorted on-line sources, the show will be at its best starting after midnight, but already folks are reporting seeing meteors (not around here, though - the only white things shooting across the night sky here lately have been snowflakes...oh, and snow geese).

A good link for info is the Astronomy.com website.

According to Astronomy.com, these meteors are bits of dust entering our atmosphere and are believed to be related in some way to the orbit of an asteroid called Phaethon. There is some speculation that this asteroid may have been a comet at one point in time.

So, bundle up (especially if it is a clear night - brrrr) and look up. They say that the show will be exceptional, with upwards of 140 meteors an hour (more than 2/minute).