The tradition is for Jan. 18-20 to be the coldest days of the year in central Maine (I heard from the TV weatherman yesterday). We have failed this year. It has been above freezing for awhile yesterday and today.
The enterprising dancer at left was auditioning for the inauguration last December: the Maine state bird is the chickadee.
We went out to the far bog today to inspect the beaver lodge and confirm if the winter snows and freezing temperatures have allowed the snow machines to transit down the trail to and from the country store (for newbies, the beaver colony has succeeded in disrupting the trail during the last few years by their bog damming operations, making it impassable to pedestrians and some machiniacs).
The start of the trail near our house was frozen solid and pockmarked with tracks from many deer and smaller animals on top of the snow machine tracks. The frequent thaw and freeze cycles this year have preserved all these tracks like dinosaur tracks in million year old sedimentary rock, as the image here depicts.
We approached the bog and found the beavers’ work was still impacting the quality of the trail.
The far bog in winter
The beaver lodge looked like it was undisturbed over the snow storms of this season so far.
The beaver lodge looked like this (at left) late last year (click on image for full size).