Tuesday, April 4, 2017

April Weather and a Walk in the Woods

Well, it rained on and off all day, and though we may see some sun briefly tomorrow, by Thursday and Friday it's supposed to be snow!  I'm running out of current blog pictures, so come with me on a walk in the woods that happened 3 weeks ago.  We'll just pretend that this week's weather isn't happening, and step back into mid-March, with an inch or two of snow on the ground.  At least it was a sunny day.

I was wandering through one of the Bruce Trail properties where I'm a Land Steward, keeping an eye on things.  It's two-thirds forest, and one-third old fields, but I stuck to the forest, which has some extra trails for cross-country skiing that are easy to follow.

There were lots of little Beech trees, this one growing well in the thinned pine plantation. which I was glad to see.

Perhaps the highlight were the animal tracks.  I think this broken tunnel under the snow is a Meadow Vole.  Barely enough snow for the tunnel!

This one I'm not so sure about, though I remember thinking at the time that it might be a Porcupine out for an early spring explore.


The first part of the trail headed through a White Pine plantation which we had thinned 3 years ago.  You can't see it easily, but there are now a lot of young deciduous saplings, which was the point of the thinning.

Lots of cut logs still on the ground.  We had them cut dead trees and leave them on the ground if they were within falling distance of the trail.  I was actively looking for close-ups and different things to photograph, trying to be creative in recording my walk.

Some nice deciduous forest too though, including this old dead Sugar Maple now riddled with woodpecker holes.

Walking down the trail this American Elm stood out, not affected yet by the Dutch Elm Disease.

It's buds were already swelling three weeks ago.

And on one pine stump, covered in moss that glowed bright green in the sun, a tiny White Pine seedling.  Yes, that's a baby tree growing in the moss, not just a fallen twig.  It will take me another couple of days to share the rest of this walk, but that should take me past the rotten April weather of the next three days and then perhaps I can get some new pictures to share!


19 comments:

  1. That sinuous trail you thought might be a porcupine track may well be the track of a snow snake. Those snakes are virtually transparent, extremely fast, slightly poisonous, feed on small mammals in the subnivian zone beneath the snow and estivate during the warmer months. It's a bit late for April Fool's Day, but ... Sometime I'll do a post on my blog about snow snakes.

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    1. I look forward to learning about snow snakes. I'm sure we have them around here, we have enough snow. Are they a smaller cousin of the river otter?

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  2. More excellent photos, but not much liking the snow there right now.

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  3. I am surprised you are expecting more snow, we have been getting our fair share of April showers!!! Beautiful images today!!!!

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  4. SNOW....wow, we did not get but one dusting and one snow of an inch here in Nashville area. To late now.....to much blooming! Thanks for the hike through the forest, I enjoyed it.

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  5. A pine seedling, beautiful, and bare branches outlined against a blue sky, perfect in my eyes for a walk there any day.

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  6. Very cool vole tunnel! I've never seen that marking before!

    I never tire of blue sky and snow photos....it's a lovely combination!

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  7. Nice shots! Thanks for being a protector of nature!

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  8. Thanks for taking us on your walk!

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  9. The vole tunnel is great a great photo!

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  10. I enjoyed my walk, thank you.
    Stunning last photograph.

    All the best Jan

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  11. Hello, what a lovely walk. The tunnel shot is cool. Beautiful images. Happy Wednesday, enjoy your day!

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  12. Nice walk. I enjoyed it all, especially that last one with the tiny little tree. :-)

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  13. It's so rare to see an elm, particularly amid other trees.

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  14. Lovely photos . The last one is my fave . Rain for us mostly down here then by Saturday sunny and warm from then on . Thanks for sharing . Have a good day and hope you dont get lots of snow from this storm .

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  15. I always enjoy a walk in the snowy woods!

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  16. I am so wanting to get out to the woods...when I was a kid, well, even as a teen-ager...when it snowed I could not wait to take my dogs and go exploring to see what kind of tracks I could see.

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  17. Lovely photos. I hope that elm tree keeps on going. It must be beautiful when leafed out.

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  18. Nice walk. The animal tracks were fun to see and I really liked your last shot of the little tree growing in the moss.

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