December 27th.  Fifty-five degrees in early afternoon.  A brief welcome respite from Winter.  These photos taken near, on, or under the trail near River Road in Westchester.

 

Scouring Rush (Equisetum hyemale subsp. affine).

 

 

 

Beavers have been working on this downed tree (Gray Birch?).

 

Well on their way to cutting it into "stove lengths".

 

Trailing Arbutus (Epigaea repens) looking real heathy cascading down over rocks west of the Brownstone Bridge over River Road.

 

Lots of buds showing.

 

 

 

A little green.

 

Staghorn Sumac (Rhus typhina).

 

A Woolly Bear (Pyrrharctia isabella) truckin' along.

 

 

 

Bottoms up!  Deep dive through some haircap moss.

 

The Blackledge River Bridge.

 

January 5th.  Twentythree degrees and occasional breezes.  Ice on the exit stream (Raymond Brook) and the marsh, but the trail is clear for now.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A flock of Dark-eyed Juncos (Junco hyemalis) feeding in the warmish dawn sun.

 

 

 

January 9th.  Late afternoon walk to check on trail conditions subsequent to the weekend's 6 or 8 inches of snow.  Not bad!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

January 10th.  Fat-tire bike and rider out for a mid-day ride in the snow.  (One degree was too cold for me at my normal early morning walk time.)

 

January 11th.  Sunshine breaking through after a night of rain and wind.  Temps in the forties.  Ahhh.

 

 

 

Sun playing hide and seek.

 

January 16th.  Goats near Cranberry Bog in East Hampton.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

January 19th.  Thirtythree degrees and foggy at the marsh.

 

 

 

January 22nd.  As many sunrises as I've photographed from this Raymond Brook Marsh spot, I still see new versions.

 

 

 

 

 

Mallards (Anas platyrhynchos) enjoying the open water of our January thaw.  There were 20 or 30 around.

 

January 24th.  A tree came down overnight in heavy rain and high winds.

 

This one unusual because it appears to have planted itself, stump-down.

 

January 25th.  Finally some clearing after two days of high winds and mixed precipitation (though mostly rain).