January 8, 2011

The winter is certainly off to a gentle start at Lake Wicwas, as we're already into the second week of January and the temperature has yet to fall below zero, and there's been only one measurable snow fall.  There was a very light dusting earlier this week, and today we had beautiful, delicate snow flakes floating down, just like in the movies, but it barely amounted to half an inch.

It was enough to cover the trees though, making another beautiful winter scene, as in this view of Crocket's Ledge.

Crocket's Ledge

Before the clouds came in there was a spectacular crescent moon that set over the lake both Thursday and Friday nights.

 
When there's just a sliver of moon visible, one can sometimes actually see the "dark side of the moon", especially in winter.  The dark side is illuminated by sunlight reflecting off the earth back towards the moon, and is most visible when the earth has a good cover of snow to maximize the reflected light.





Someone is taking advantage of the good weather, as the building on the north end of the lake is making great progress.  No visible construction has started at the south end; they are still doing site work.

Fox Pair

Before today's snow there were quite a few tracks around the lake.  Here a pair of foxes were traveling together.  A pair will often follow exactly in each others footprints, appearing to be one fox, but occasionally separating to show there are actually two, and then combining again.


There were also tracks of the fisher-cat up on one of the rocky ridges near the lake.

Fisher-cat Prints

At 10:15 pm, the red fox came by again, this time wearing his full winter coat (see summer and fall pictures on November 7, 2010), out for a night hunting session, with light snow still in the air.

Red Fox