Larry had some company this morning on his walk; a vole. “It was running along the side of the road… it climbed up on the snowbank and ran across the surface,” says Weber who expressed envy for the vole's ability to not sink into the snow. Voles typically survive the winters under the snowpack.
The whacky swings of February are continuing. Rain on Valentine’s Day challenged the record for precipitation but didn’t quite break it. All told, this winter has been well above average as precipitation goes. Temperatures have also been flirty with records but falling just short. A temperature reading of 42 on the 11th was a single degree off the record high.
Woodpeckers are drumming, nuthatches are calling, as are barred owls... and the snow is melting, though only intermittently. The melting and refreezing is making for some icy surfaces and dangerous travel conditions.
Signs of spring are beginning to show up, even if we are still quite faraway.