March 5, 2023: Snowy Steamboat

We spent the past week visiting family in Steamboat Springs, Colorado (thanks for being a great host VP!) where there is definitely snow - 360.5 inches this winter and counting.  In feet, that's 30.  Downtown Steamboat has quite a few sculptures along Main Street, similar to Meredith, though the art work in Steamboat is permanent, not rotating.  And this time of year, they aren't all that visible.  

There's actually a third person buried in the snow - that's what the two girls are looking at.

And maybe that's why we didn't see much wildlife - animals aren't moving around much.  Usually we see a moose or a deer, or at least a fox.  All we saw this week was a different variant of a junco and quite a few magpies.  I believe the junco variant was an Oregon junco, the most widely spread of the western juncos, but I didn't get a picture.  

Oregon Junco.  Photo courtesy U.S. Dept. Fish and Wildlife

Magpies on the other hand were seen often - they are not shy.  Like other members of the corvid family - crows and ravens for example - magpies are intelligent.  They know how to coexist with humans, take advantage of our actions, and are conscious of just how close they can get to us without being in danger.  Crows, which know they can eat road kill just over the white line on a highway without getting hit (usually) have this same ability to learn.

Right along the edge of the Yampa River in Steamboat, a pair of osprey have built a nest on a post set up for that purpose.

Osprey nest along the Yampa River.

But in the winter when the ospreys are off enjoying life in the tropics, a magpie has taken over the spot as its observation tower.

Magpie stationed as lookout.

Magpies perch in the highest spot to observe and defend their territory from intruding magpies.  They are large birds with long tails, and are quite flashy whether they're sitting or flying.

The ski resort in Steamboat has a set closing date every year so as not to interfere with the elk migration, but this year due to all the snow the closing date has been extended a week because those elk aren't going up the mountain until the snowpack melts down.  30 feet is a lot of snow.

We arrived back in New Hampshire just in time to enjoy our own local dump of snow, and it was a good one.  After a few hours of shoveling the snow we've had in the past week I took an excursion on the skis up behind Lake Wicwas on the Hamlin Trails.

It was a beautiful and warm day, full of cobalt skies and brilliant pristine snow contrasted with inky black streams.

Most of the trails weren't tracked out when I was there this morning, but it's so nice today that I expect the popular trails will be packed down by the end of the day.

It's going to be a great week to get out and enjoy late-winter activities in the long days and warm sun of March.

March is my favorite month of winter.