Winter on the Orange Trail

First of all, let me just say that trekking poles are great.  I'm still getting the hang of using them correctly, but, I hit a couple of places on the trail today, where I think I would have done some slipping and sliding, if I hadn't had the poles to steady me.  You can see why in this picture.  The hard trodden snow didn't all melt during the warm spell, and when it got cold again, it froze into ice patches.

I went out searching for liverworts.  I found lots of moss.  On the ground.

At the base of trees.

On dead branches.

On more tree bases.

Lichens galore.  Isn't the first one a beauty?

Just getting started.

Moss or lichen?

Barely there.

But, I couldn't find any liverworts.  I guess I wasn't looking hard enough, or maybe I was looking in the wrong places.

I started out in the woods.  It was beautiful, quiet and still.  I noticed the difference immediately.  There were no bird sounds.

But, when I got to the Great Meadow, things got exciting.  First of all, I found these tracks.  They're old, and distorted.  They're about the size of my fist.  What do you think they are?

And, right near the tracks, I found this scat.  It's old, too.  All that's left is vegetable matter.  And, it's big, maybe as round as a cheap cigar.

OK, OK, I know, it's probably dog prints, and, maybe, dog or fox scat.  But, it was fun, for a minute, to pretend that it was some fabulous wild creature.  Alas, common sense ruled and I put that out of my mind.

But, that was only the first of the surprises.  The meadow was FULL of robins.  Not just one or two, but a couple of dozen at least.  So much for them being a migratory bird any more.  I wonder what they were all finding to eat?

 

And, there were other birds in the Great Meadow, also.  I found this cheery little chickadee poking around on the ground.

And, feasting on sumac heads, this cute little downy woodpecker.

I also took another look at the bittersweet that I had seen earlier.  I learned from The Adirondack Naturalist /http://adknaturalist.blogspot.com/  that Asian bittersweet was rampant in the US.  I wanted to see if what I had seen was the native bittersweet, or the invader.  Sadly, I think it is the Asian variety.  The berries are more red than orange, and that is one of the defining differences.

Before I left the trails, I took a quick trip over to look at the swamp.  I know that this has been right in front of me, every time I have been there, but it's only now, when all the green has died away, that I noticed the muskrat house right in the middle of the now frozen water.

That is one thing that the starkness of winter helps you do, see things more clearly.