8:00 am temp: 14
Yesterday: 32/17
Normal: 29/14
Corn spilled along the train tracks
This morning I saw a young doe get hit by the train. It was the Amtrak train that hit her, but she was on the tracks feeding on corn spilled from a freight train.
We went down and dragged her body off the tracks and called the food bank to see if they could come harvest the meat.
Rest in peace girl, you just didn’t understand about trains.
8:00 AM temp: 59
Yesterday: 63/45
Normal: 73/45
The neighbors
We finally saw a fawn yesterday. I’ve been watching for weeks, but apparently they come later in the spring than I expected. This one was born next door, on a fenced lot of nearly an acre. The fawn is out of sight in the brush most of the time, but ventured out with mama this evening. Mama comes and goes, but the fawn will be on that property until it is old enough to jump the fence.
Last year a fawn was also born on that property, and one evening later in the summer we saw several adult deer on the outside of the fence and the fawn frantically running the fence line but unable to get out. It was hard to watch, but it is probably actually a safe place for a young deer to grow up, out of reach of neighborhood dogs.
8:00 AM temp: 24
Yesterday: 41/24
Normal: 56/31
We watched as a black bear walked through the yard one night in November. It left these tracks next to the house.
The bears are out and about again. According to the paper, a turkey hunter in the southern part of the valley was charged by a grizzly that was, along with her two yearling cubs, feeding on a deer carcass. A motion camera subsequently placed near the spot filmed a large male grizzly feeding on the carcass the same evening.
Closer to home, it would be surprising to see a grizzly in the neighborhood, but we did have a black bear scavenging for garbage here in the fall. We came home from a weekend of camping to find a bag of trash (not ours) strewn around the back yard along with several piles of bear droppings. While on our walks over the next week or so we occasionally saw garbage cans knocked over. Then one night around 2 a.m. Steve happened to get up and look out the window, catching sight of the bear walking up through the back yard toward the house.
As the bear walked around the side of the house we ran to a glass door and pulled up the shade, and the bear was standing just a few feet away from us. It ambled on around to the front of the house and across the street. When it started checking out garbage cans we decided to try to scare it off, waving flashlights and yelling from our front porch. It wasn’t too worried about us, but eventually did shuffle off.
There was a skiff of fresh snow, so in the morning we followed his tracks around the neighborhood. He was obviously looking to strike it lucky with an unsecured garbage can. It didn’t look like he found any that night, but sadly people seem to be quite casual about leaving the cans outside with garbage in them.
8:00 AM temp: 39
Yesterday: 52/22
Normal: 55/31
Spring visitors
The deer are back. And so am I, after travels south to find the sun. The grass is starting to green up, but there is snow in the hills and the forecast calls for an inch or two of snow here in the valley today. The fluctuations of spring.
There is something comforting about watching the ebb and flow of the seasons. It feels eternal, timeless, certain. Yet, this is an illusion. The earth bears the marks of historic variations in climate, from ice ages to warmer periods. But no change has occurred as rapidly as the one that we are currently in the early stages of. What will spring look like here in 10 years?
8:00 AM temp: 25
Yesterday: 39/27
Normal: 48/27
There are a couple dozen swans on the lake this morning. I’ve been watching them through the telescope, white bodies floating on the gray water with snow lightly falling. It’s beautiful in a Japanese, wintry sort of way.
Tundra or trumpeter swans? I can’t tell from this distance.
8:00 AM temp: 32
Yesterday: 55/34
Normal: 44/24
I’m seeing lots of goldeneyes on the lake again. They are hanging out along the edge of the ice, sometimes sitting on the ice and sometimes in the water paddling along and bobbing under.
Yesterday at dusk we saw a large flock of geese on the far side of the lake, lifting off in waves, circling, and landing again. They looked small for Canada geese, making us wonder if they could be migrating snow geese. It was too dark and they were too far away to tell. We’ll keep our eyes open the next few days.
There’s big melting going on with this warm spell. It’s supposed to reach 55 again today. I can see patches of ground in the yard again, reminding me that I need to do something about landscaping – last summer’s repair work on the house left much of the yard torn up. Time to make a plan, a good task for early spring.
Current temp: 32
Last 24: 37/27
Pheasant Tracks
Pheasant tracks in the yard this morning. I love the shape of their footprints, and the way they walk, one foot directly in front of the other.
We often hear them, and we see them walking down the train tracks. It’s easy walking there in the winter, and recently a leaking grain car left a thin ribbon of grain on the tracks.
As the snow starts to melt out in the yard, bird activity is increasing. Several days ago black-capped chickadees and a pair of flickers were in the trees next to the deck. It’s great to hear more bird noises again.
8:00 AM temp: 19
Last 24 min/max: 19/38
Clear and cold this morning. Just the way we like winter.
One of the bald eagles was back this morning. We see them fly around from time to time, but usually they like to perch in some tall larch trees near the outlet to Whitefish River, not in our neighborhood. We did some exploring and found the attractant: the carcass of a young deer down by the railroad tracks.
Current temp: 35
This morning’s viewing was highlighted by two bald eagles
The binoculars are always handy on the window sill. It amazes me how much there is to see out there when I take the time to watch, and how changeable it is. Sometimes in the morning I drag a stool right up in front of the window. Today I was watching the early light interact with a rapidly moving snow squall when a bald eagle swooped
Bald Eagle
into view. As frequently happens, it was closely followed by several squawking crows. I wondered why crows harass eagles, and so I googled it. Apparently crows target a variety of predatory birds. The answer as to why is not simple, but this page gives a good account if you’re curious: Why Don’t Hawks Fight Back?.
The eagle came and went a few times, along with its escort of crows, and eventually a second bald eagle came along and perched in another nearby tree.
Whitefish Lake is still in good shape in terms of water quality, although studies indicate that it has been gradually degrading (a process known as cultural eutrophication) over the past decades. Lake trout, whitefish, pike, a few westslope cutthroat trout, and probably other species of fish are found in the lake…good eating if you’re an eagle.
Backyard Climate Report 