I was walking along the Pemi Trail in Franconia Notch one morning this week when a silent streak of motion caught my eye. Large wings then expanded and flared as a creature that could only be a barred owl settled gracefully a few dozen yards off the trail. Though I knew where it had landed, a careful examination of the area could not locate the bird. As I was about to give up, thinking I had hallucinated in the early morning, the owl turned its head, making just enough motion for me to find it, perfectly hidden among the grey and white hardwood forest. By the time I dug into my backpack to pull out the camera, it had disappeared. I figured it had flown off silently while my head was down even though I was trying to keep the area in my peripheral vision so I'd detect any motion.
Trying to remember just what tree it was on, I studied up and down the trunk carefully, and yes - there it was, staring right at me. I brought the camera up to my eye, and it was gone again. Camera down, study the tree again, there it was. I repeated this a couple of times and finally gave up trying to find the bird in the camera viewfinder, and just took a picture of the general area knowing the master of disguise would be there. I had to zoom the picture way in to convince myself I really caught it. Can you find the champion of camouflage in this forest scene?
How about now?
It's still surprisingly hard to make it out, though there's no doubt it's there.
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| The same photo, blown up. |
A remarkably successful natural evolution on display. Barely.
I have a feeling these silent predators are eating quite well at the moment - as are all the local predators - because the gray squirrel population seems to be exploding. I'm not the only one that has observed an abundance of gray squirrels around lately, though I haven't yet found someone that exceeded our count of ten squirrels under the feeders at the same time.
All that motion squirming around on the ground reminded me that they are in the same family as rats.... At least we have trained them to stick to their own feeders and stay off those for the birds.
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| The squirrels have their own feeders to exploit. |
Female squirrels are especially ravenous right now because they're pregnant and need extra resources to develop their young and prepare to nurse them. The next generation will be born this month, blind and completely reliant on their mother for about five weeks (the father is off gallivanting with other females). A litter usually consists of one to four young, with higher numbers produced when winter food is plentiful. And if a mother thinks one of those hungry owls or another predator has a bead on its nest, it will move the litter to another location, carrying each of its young to a new safe house. The whole process will be repeated again in late summer as they produce a second litter - perhaps we're on our way to another squirrel-adeggon this summer.
Those warm, sun-filled days this past week had me thinking about spring as the sun melted away a lot of snow and large puddles formed on top of the ice.
Even though there are still 21 inches of ice to be liquified it's not too early to be thinking about loon season (I saw my first migrating duck near the outlet of Lake Wicwas yesterday). The Loon Preservation Committee has been preparing for loon season all winter long while watching them in their temporary home at the Atlantic Ocean. In their latest newsletter they have a picture of one loon feasting on a culinary delicacy they can't enjoy in the Lakes Region:
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| Fresh lobster for dinner! (LPC Photo) |
I'd love to see how the loon is going to tackle that meal!
If you don't receive the Loon Preservation Committee newsletters you can sign up for them here: LPC Newsletter.
Another sign of what's to come: Snowdrops are poking their heads up in warm sunny spots between the snow banks.
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| Snowdrops, the first flower of spring. |
If however, you want winter to last a bit longer, fear not, you only have to travel a bit north to know that winter will be around many weeks to come.
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| Plenty of winter left at 3500' elevation in Franconia Notch. |
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| The Franconia Range seen from the Cannon Cliffs. |
Old Man Winter still has plenty of cards left to play.
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