Despite a wicked cold morning (10 degrees above with a 15+ mph wind), the five hardy souls who joined me for our store’s Saturday morning birdwalk were treated to one of the absolute best mornings of birding we’ve had. A complete summary, as usual, is on the news page of Yarmouthbirds.com (plus a reminder of Wednesday’s book release party event!), but the highlights included 100+ Bohemian Waxwings, a total of 86 Pine Grosbeaks in three different places, and – finally – my first Barrow’s Goldeneye, a drake, at the South Freeport Town Landing.

The Barrow’s was posing nicely for digiscoping. Unfortunately, the wind was enough to make the scope - and the dock! – shake, which didn’t help, and before long, my bare hand was nearly frozen to the camera. However, I did get a few “keepers.”

Later, in the afternoon, while taking Sasha on her regular short stroll over to Royal River Park, I ran into 8 Pine Grosbeaks in a crabapple in a yard on East Elm Street. Can I go anywhere WITHOUT seeing these guys this winter!?

Meanwhile, as much as a foot of snow fell on Sunday (with lower totals along the coast where the period of sleet, freezing rain, and rain lasted longer; we got about 10 inches at home in Pownal), and therefore birding was limited to the feeders (a new yard high count of 33 Mourning Doves) and a short cross-country ski trip down our road and into the woods before the Patriot’s Game.

Monday’s Southern York County Christmas Count was wisely postponed until Tuesday to allow for roads to get cleared – and for people like me to get out of my driveway! After snowblowing the driveway, again, I took Sasha for a snowshoe trek at Hedgehog Mountain Park. Three fly-over Snow Buntings were the avian highlight.

OK, so despite the fact that Old Man Winter has an unusually early, and strong, grip on Maine this year, Global Climate Change has hardly ceased. One cold winter does not mean there is no Global Warming, just as one hot summer doesn’t prove that there is Global Warming. However, the long-term trends are clear.

Here’s two recent articles on the topic, one reporting on another summer of significant melting of the Arctic icecap, and another on this year’s warmth across the U.S.

In other words, get out the cross-country skiis and snowshoes, and let’s enjoy this winter while we have it!