Jeannette and I attempted to ski some trails around the Cathance River in Topsham (off of Cathance Rd) yesterday, but it wasn’t as successful as we hoped! Snowmobiles and above-freezing temperatures over the weekend resulted in a hard-packed, icy, rutted, crunchy, hard surface. Basically, I’m a pretty lousy skier, so icy trails make even small hills significant obstacles for me (especially attempting to make turns on the way down)! Oh well, we got our exercise in.

However, we were hoping to run into some finches (a friend had a few White-winged Crossbills in the area last week), but no doubt the noise we were making while crunching through the icy snow would have drowned out any whispering finches and sent them on their way. The area, however, looked great for finches – with lots of hemlock and Paper Birch, and a fair amount of spruce and Yellow Birch. Better skiing conditions will result in further exploration of this area.

Meanwhile, a walk around Hedgehog Mountain on this beautiful morning did not produce anything unexpected, but I enjoyed hearing a cacophony of territorial Hairy and Downy Woodpeckers calling and drilling away. Spring is on its way!

On the way to the store, I once again stopped at the Lower Falls on the Royal River in Yarmouth. A small patch of open water remains, and on it, all three mergansers (1 male Hooded, 2 female Common, and 2 female Red-breasted) continue. While watching one of the Red-breasted Mergs this morning, I witnesses it snag a large (8” or so) eel (or eel-like fish) that had to be at least 3-4 inches “tall” as well. It was wrestling with it, before a Herring Gull standing on the ice nearby jumps into the fray and snags the eel, swallowing it in a few quick gulps. The Merg looked more than a little annoyed! The Gull looked full.

On a sad note, a story from New Hampshire about the mysterious deaths of 17 Common Loons has been in the papers. Happily, a few were rescued and released, but apparently the others were caught by a rapid freeze-up on Lake Winnipesaukee. Although the first article I read on the event seemed to overplay the population significance (in the headline) of the deaths, I was interested in the human-interest comments included (such as the thought that people had been passing all of these birds by, with no interest in helping – or contacting someone who could. Personally, such apathy always astonishes me. On a more scientific note, the whole event – the congregation of so many loons, the rapid freeze, and resulting deaths is extremely odd, and I wonder what biologists will learn.

And, since I like to end on a positive note, check out my friend’s YouTube video of wildlife clips from Alaska to Antarctica.