Winter Wednesday-Week 2 Snow
We haven't had much snowfall in our area since last week so our plans to complete the snow melting measurement activity are on hold for the moment. We did observe something that the book talks about on page 28 and 29, Snow Melt and Trees.
"During the day, the tree absorbs heat from the sun. The tree radiates heat and melts the snow."
You can see in these photos how this looks out in the woods.
Here is another photo that shows the melted snow very clearly. Right after we took this photo we saw a coyote over beyond the trees. He was hurrying past on his way to somewhere else....we did not see him again all day.
On my the right sidebar of my blog I have a photo of my summer hiking boots....now here are my winter hiking boots. These are so very comfortable and warm. Don't they look like brand new? They are two years old! I just love LL Bean. ( I just looked up on the LL Bean website and I can't find these particular boots there anymore....just in case you were going to ask.)
The snow was just right for snow boots. I was really glad we did not need the snowshoes today because they are a lot of work and I wanted to just relax. Next time I am going to bring them along because there is an area that I wanted to explore but the snow was just too deep. I stepped of the trail and sunk down to about mid-calf.
We stayed on the trail....isn't this a welcoming little entrance to this part of the wilderness? (Don't tell Brittney...this is where we saw the bear last fall.)
Several people emailed me about the beaver dam in the header of the blog. Yes, it is a real beaver dam that is along one of our regular hiking trails. I promised a few more photos to go along with the beaver story. The photo above is a good example of what a tree looks like that a beaver has worked on. This particular tree is pretty far from the creek so I'm not sure why they chose it but it is still sitting in the woods. You can tell how big a beaver is by how far up the tree he was working.
You can see if you look closely or click the photo to enlarge it that the rangers have come through and protected some of the tree trunks with wire to prevent the beavers from falling the trees. There are quite a few trees that look as if the beaver got started and then the rangers wrapped up the trunks to keep the tree intact.
The turn around spot on this hike was this beach. This is the beach we spend hours and hours at during the summer and fall. This is a favorite with locals so there are lots of tracks and paw prints in the snow. There were a few mallard ducks hanging around today as well as a very chattery squirrel. More on the squirrels in another post soon.
One more friend from our walk this time.
Mr. Steller's jay is a glorious blue and even more striking against the winter's gray. They have to be some of the most loud and squawky birds you can ever imagine but they are so pretty when they hold still for a photo. Click the link above and scroll down to where you can listen to the call of the Steller's jay....squawk indeed.
That was our Winter Wednesday this week. We are going to make sure to remember to actually do the activities we planned from chapter two when it snows here next....maybe soon.
Barb-Harmony Art Mom
