What A Wonderful Sunday

Today was an exciting day in centennial. There was a treacherous walk in, with a section of the path going up a hill to my spot being solid ice, which i had to circumvent. On my way out i took a spill going down that area unfortunately. There is still snow on the ground, in some spots its just a slight cover, in others drifts of a few feet still exist. The brook has swelled to about twice the capacity, and the marshy area towards the south of my spot has started to collect water.

The forest was truly alive today, with a constant chatter from my neighbor birds. I heard twelve distinct and different calls, the most i've heard to date. I tried to identify some by their calls using the cornell ornithology website, to no avail. I need to get into the tree canopy, as thats where all the action is. My hemlock grove provides such a great place for food and protection, but because of the thickness of the canopy, the birds are very hard to see or even catch a glimpse for that matter. There were plenty of black capped chickadees in the trees, and when i was watching them it seemed as if they were checking under the bark on the dead trees for grubs and whatever else they could find. I identified a red breasted nuthatch, a new species to my spot. I have a resident gray squirrel whose nest i found in a nearby tree. The banks of the brook are muddy, and in this mud i found some mammal tracks. While i did not have my camera with me, i did have my mammal identification sheet, and am 98% sure they were mink tracks. It was a five toed print with claw marks, around an inch in size, and a track pattern exclusive to otter, fisher, mink and weasel. Very cool. I am excited for the coming weeks and the start of spring tomorrow. Life is springing back into action.