January 5, 2009

Winter
by Adam Lieberg

After a Fall hiatus, the Barn Blog is back.  Without a Cori Stanek or Zach Wallace around to pick up my slack, I (Adam Lieberg) am back to blogging solo.

Like much of the nation, December at the Barn saw a long stretch of cold artic air that caused the temperatures to hit the basement.  High temps rarely topped much above 0° (F), while evening lows bottomed out at -10° to -15° (F).

December 20th was the official Christmas Bird Count.  I teamed up with expert birder Mike Palladini and we hit the Foothills Trail out of Holland Lake.  Daytime temps hovered around -5° (F), not ideal for birding, but we still managed to find a few birds.  Our most interesting sighting was a group of Pine Grosbeaks that we found feeding on beargrass seeds and rose hips.

Male Pine Grosbeak on Beargrass seedhead.

Female Pine Grosbeak on Beargrass

Notice the short thick bill and relatively long tail.  Also, the transition of dull pink to soft gray colors on the breast of this male is indicative of our regional Rocky Mountain Grosbeak population.

By Christmas Eve, the temperatures had significantly warmed and our snow pack had reached about a foot at the barn.

The following are pictures from around the barn taken on Christmas Eve:

NwC garden

An ermine bounded through the lower meadow opting for a route that included a little cover from a Spruce tree.

The Swan River has completely froze over in places, which creates a convenient highway for wildlife.  Coyotes took advantage of this the other morning and used the frozen river corridor to chase down a whitetail deer.

Not all stretches of the river are frozen.  Here an American Dipper takes advantage of open water to feed in.