February 20, 2026

As I write this morning, a snowstorm is slated to arrive by noon, bringing 5-7 inches of wet snow, becoming less wet by tomorrow morning. Over the past week temperatures have risen into the 30s, touching 40 once, but it has been a fairly cold winter, with what seems (without checking records) to be an average amount of snow. Last spring our area finally received enough rain to emerge from a drought, but by summer’s end we were squarely back in one, and my hope is that the winter’s snow + (crossing fingers) spring rain brings the brook back up to normal levels.

I have a new trail camera that I’ve had up for about six weeks in the same spot. It doesn’t require a data chip, so I don’t need to shuffle back and forth to it, and deal with innumerable dongles to retrieve the photos. The camera automatically sends the images to my phone. So far it has captured images of turkey, deer, gray fox, a neighborhood cat, bobcat, squirrel, and coyote. Last night at 6pm a possum. During one snowstorm the camera was triggered several times by snow on the wind.

Birds at the feeder have included: northern cardinal, black-capped chickadee, white-breasted nuthatch, dark-eyed junco, tufted titmouse, Carolina wren, hairy woodpecker, downy woodpecker, red-bellied woodpecker, mourning dove (mostly below the feeder), American goldfinch. We didn’t see any of the promised irruptive finches down from Canada this year. White-throated sparrows have abounded, and from time to time will brave the chaos at the bird feeder, not just below it. Last fall a rare-for-us red-breasted nuthatch came to the feeder.

Despite the snowstorm, spring migration is coming to our area of Vermont soon, with the first arrivals of turkey vulture, red-winged blackbird, and song sparrow. I’ve already heard the cardinals singing, not just their metallic chipping, and yesterday saw the brilliant blue back of an eastern bluebird in flight.

I’m looking forward to traveling nearly as far as I’ve ever been from home this year, but not until it’s almost time for fall migration, a ways off.

Reading: Rising from the Plains by John McPhee, The Mixed Marriage Project by Dorothy Roberts, and six or seven other books.