Snow Storm

 

We are in the 10-14 inches of snow forecast range for this storm. As of 6:45am on this Tuesday morning, we have 10.5 inches.

UPDATE: SNOW TOTAL FROM THIS STORM = 12 inches

A Maine Cornucopia calendar for sale

My newest nature photography calendar for 2020 has been completed. I have titled it "A Maine Cornucopia" as it is an eclectic mix of photos that I took over this last year. 

Check it out on my Maine Nature Diary LULU.com bookstore!

Coyote Warning

https://pixabay.com/photos/coyote-snow-winter-wildlife-nature-938482/
Skeeze. “Coyote in Snow.” Pixabay.com, 15 Sept. 15AD, https://pixabay.com/photos/coyote-snow-winter-wildlife-nature-938482/.

The Auburn Police Dept. has issued a coyote warning.
Want to hear the coyote howl? Click on this Romping and Rolling in the Rockies game camera video.

I've never gotten a photo of a coyote, but I have photographed their scat in the woods behind our house.

Coyote scat is different from domestic dog scat as it is firmer, ropy in shape, and filled with prey hair and bones. The hair in this scat is deer hair.

http://www.wildlifelandtrust.org/wildlife/diy-activities/how-to-identify-coyote-tracks.html
Vermont Ed. “Dog vs. Coyote Track Comparison.” Flickr, 18 Jan. 13AD, http://www.wildlifelandtrust.org/wildlife/diy-activities/how-to-identify-coyote-tracks.html.

Here is a comparison between a domestic dog track (left) and a coyote track (right) taken by a park ranger. Here is what he says about the tracks:

Dog vs. Coyote Track Comparison
Many clues differentiate the domestic dogs track from a wild coyote track. You don't often get tracks as perfect as these two, but in general, here is what to look out for: Domestic Dog track (on left): Important note - some domestic dogs can leave very convincing looking wild canid tracks. Your best bet is often to look at the overall trail pattern (if possible) which I explain below. 

Dog Track (on left) Overall roundish shape, blunt claws from walking on pavement/ indoors, toes 2 and 3 sit relatively low and close to heel pad, toes 1 and 4 point outwards. It would be difficult to draw an "X" in the middle of the track that would only touch the negative spaces (spaces between toes and pad). Also , the trail will usually be that of an animal that obviously was having fun and using lots of energy - not concerned about where its next meal is coming from. Not a lot of straight lines.  

Coyote Track (on right) Overall oval shape, very sharp and pointy claws from infrequent contact w/pavement/hard surfaces, toes 2 and 3 sit almost on top of 1 and 4, all claws point relatively inward (even in this quite splayed print), much more negative space between toes 2-3 and the heel pad. Lastly, an "X" would be relatively easy to draw in the middle of this print while staying completely within the negative space.  

When in doubt the overall trail pattern is often more important than any individual track. For the most part, coyotes (and most other wild animals save some species in the weasel family) take a much more business like approach to travel, mostly keeping to relatively straight paths and steady gaits while traversing their territories. A pet dog's exuberance is often very discernible in the fact that they run, zig-zag, and explore more than do their wild cousins in the dog family.

Frozen Soap Bubbles and Crystal Formation

Created and photographed on Jan. 1, 2018

'Tis the season of frozen soap bubbles! Let's see if we can make some nature art!

I have only blown soap bubbles at -11F down to -16F. But Sheila (below) likes the outdoor temp. to be a bit warmer, and I think I'll try her process this year. If I can prop up my bubble surface, it will be easier to photograph as well...
Here is a link to some soap bubbles that I photographed on Jan. 1, 2018!

Note to self: Try taking video of the crystallization process this year. Here is a quote from Sheila's Maine (Facebook) on her process:

Sheila's Maine

November 19 at 7:10 AM · 

It's quite fun and very beautiful to see the crystals come to life. They form fairly fast (the colder the temps the quicker they form). Sometimes they become large and feathered and other times hundreds of small crystals immediately form. 

If you would like to try this experiment you need some seriously cold temps (the absolute best seems to be around 10 degrees - give or take a few degrees - and no wind. I've done them in below 0 weather, but it goes pretty quick for photographing. If it's warmer it takes longer and you run the risk of even a slight breeze popping the bubble.) The recipe is 1/4 C Dawn dish soap, 3/4 C water, 2 Tablespoons clear corn syrup (Karo). The solution needs to be cold so I keep it in an airtight container in the fridge. You want to take it directly from the fridge to the outside so the solution is cool like the outside. You need a surface that is bowl like to put the bubble on -- an upside down soda can works. I have a small clear base from a lens-ball that I use. Some people use upside down wine glass bases etc. You can play around with other surfaces as well. You will also need a straw to blow your bubble with. My bubbles are rather small -- maybe 2 inches in diameter, but you can go bigger, of course. I like to go smaller so if there is even a tiny breeze I have a better chance at keeping it going. 

Fabric Pottery for Christmas

I was gifted a beautiful fabric bowl for Christmas from our lovely neighbors. Drew immediately hung it on the wall as I want everyone to be able to view it with each visit. The maker of the art is Beth Ezold, of Fernhaven Quilting and Crafts, out of New Hampshire. I love it!!!

Christmas presents from friends - Carrots and Squash

Our neighbors came over for a gift exchange tonight. They know us so well...Drew was gifted a variety of colors of carrots.

Here is the end of the red carrot.

And the end of the purple carrot.

And, let's honor the yellow carrot here.

Yummmy for the tummy squash was also in the gift bag.

Squash is one of our favorite foods and Drew steams it practically every night during the months of autumn.

Such a beautiful food crop with pretty patterns on its skin.

Simon Beck's Snow Art

Simon Beck in an internationally known snow and sand artist. I have been a fan of his for quite some time as his work is amazing. This article is about how he began his work that sort of morphed out of his map-making/engineering profession. This is a Mountainfilm of his inspiration for art - made in Norway.

Happy First Day of Christmas Vacation to me!

We decided to celebrate the first day of my Christmas vacation week by going on a short walk along Hix Small Cemetery Rd. and a short distance off trail into the woods.

I walked just shy of a mile, while Drew and Toby went a bit further into the woods. It was too rough for my knee to handle.

When we were walking through Hix Small Cemetery, I found a grave stone that was beautifully adorned with possibly a few species of Rock Shield Lichen.

Rock Shield Lichen (Xanthoparmelia sp.) is a foliose lichen with leaf-like lobes that radiate out from a central greenish-yellowish center. I like that you can still see some of the letters on the grave stone. The grave stones in this cemetery range from dates in the 1700's to present day.

I couldn't get close enough to the grave stone to do the lichen justice. This is one of the most common lichens to grow on exposed rocks. And, indeed, this grave stone was smack dab in the middle of the cemetery where it gets a good amount of sunlight.

Northern Woodlands- A Place in Mind: Witness

Audio version of Ben Bailey's encounter with a red tailed hawk and gray squirrels. The circle of life continues...always...

Caesar Pond

I went over to Caesar Pond to check on the water level and the state of the ice. The water is high.

And, the ice is very thin. I was surprised to see any ice on the pond after all the rain and wind!

Birthday Boogie

It's my birthday, and I wanted nothing more than to have a nice walk in the woods! I got all bundled up (way too many layers which look to add about a foot to my waist size) and we headed for Hix Small Cemetery Road, and then onto a friend's 100 acre lot. It was a short, but satisfying walk which lead me to do a stationary birthday boogie as my knee is not up to allowing me to bust any moves!

The Rain in Maine...

Geesh, Drew just put out the rain gauge to measure the rainfall from 6am until the storm is over this afternoon. We are in the flood watch zone. UPDATE: WE MEASURED 2.2 inches of rain and figure that there was at least a total of 3 inches from the start of the storm Friday night until the bitter end. AND, people were hydroplaning on the highway. We saw two, single-car accidents within a half mile of each other.

Now, Weather.com says,

Rain is expected to continue to spread northeast today and become heavy at times through tonight. By this afternoon 1 to 2 inches of rain is expected with some totals approaching 3 inches. This rainfall in combination with some snow melt and already high river levels will cause additional rises on area rivers. Minor river flooding is possible as well as ponding of water in urban and poor drainage areas.

AND, there will be wind along with the rain. Check out these temperatures! By the way, we are slated to get back to normal and have snow on Tuesday;-)

Rats! We've got rats! Aughhhhh.....This one's name is "Nibbler."

Aughhh...We put out bird seed to try to attract turkeys to our bird feeding station.

But, we got rats instead. Brown rats, that is. 

Otherwise know as the common rat, street rat, sewer rat, wharf rat, Norway rat, and water rat, these omnivores will reproduce like crazy if their population numbers are depleted. So, you have to demolish the entire population if you want to get rid of them. By the way, Antarctica is the only place on earth that is too cold for rats to survive.

I need to put up a sign that says, "For Turkeys Only" to try to deter the rats!

This is Maine and It's Going to Snow Song

Check out this great song by R. Burton. Seen on Bangor Daily News.
This is Maine and it's Going to Snow

By the way, this is the 700th post of Maine Nature Diary, on Blogger;-)

Snow Blowing

Drew put the Cub Cadet snow blower to work for the first time this season. It is slower than our old one.

It is a bit different than our last one, and time will tell if it will do as good a job as it's blade shape is a bit different.

Once Drew left the driveway and started snow blowing a path around the house and in the backyard for Toby, the snow blower got bogged down with snow. Drew had to clear out the snow half a dozen times so it would go up through the hopper. He only had to clear the old snow thrower once in 20 years. Mixed reviews on this new one... Bummed. UPDATE: IT BROKE A SHEAR PIN IN THE FIRST 10 MINUTES OF USE! We will need to keep at least a dozen shear pins on hand for each winter's use of this beastly machine! The company we bought it from is going to pick it up sometime and put a bolt in where the deepest shear pin is so we won't have to deal with that one (as the machine has to be dismantled to get at the nefarious pain.) UPDATE ON THE UPDATE: A bolt couldn't be installed, just supposedly stronger shear pins...We''ll see... Now we are planning on going outside and picking up stones along the edge of the road before each snow to avert snow blower damage.

Snow Day # 2

Snow Table showing about 2" of snow early this morning

 We got 5" of fluffy snow from this storm. 

Looking over at the pond from the front deck.

It was nice to have a day off to get school work done, along with a bit of exercising (including snow scooping-)

Caesar Pond Ice

I went over to Caesar Pond to check out the ice this afternoon. I had seen three juvenile bald eagles out there early this morning, and wanted to see what the attraction was. I never did find anything unusual on the ice surface, but maybe there was a fish near the surface that they were trying to capture.

The ice has thinned over the last week of warm weather leaving some open water in places.

We have had rain on several different days this week and now there is a layer of freshly frozen water on top of the previous ice.

This has left lots of air bubbles in the very thin ice. Unfortunately, with the state of my new knee, I cannot get to the very edge of the pond to photograph the tiny bubbles, but here is a zoom photo of it.

Papermill Trail

I wanted to push myself further on today's walk, so we went from the parking lot of Papermill Trail to where the train tracks cross the trail near Lisbon High School. This gave me a 2.26 mile roundtrip walk. It taxed me to the max, was painful and frustrating. I did the walk in 86 minutes which was 8 minutes slower per mile than the last time I walked the trail. I have a low tolerance for my lack of progress and where the walk should have been relaxing, I continually berated myself. Not a good thing to do when getting some quality outdoor time.

At least I stopped to take a photo of Toby and Drew. They are my favorite life forms on Earth!

Frozen Caesar Pond

Whoo Hooo! Caesar Pond has a very thin layer of ice on its surface! It iced over on Wednesday after the wind and freezing rain we had all day Tuesday. The nighttime temps. were in the teens, while the daytime temps. did not get above freezing for several days. Drew went out this morning, to snap a few photos, as it is too slick for me to get over there with my new knee at the moment.

The wind whipped the water to a frenzy, and crystals formed into slushy, rotating disks creating pancake ice.  

I find it interesting that there are "pancakes" under the top layer of ice as well.

Then, there are the icicles on tree branches that overhang the pond.

Icicles on logs embedded in the ice.

And, icicles surrounding the base of trees in the water. I love our icy world!