So we started the month with temperatures that were cold but not all day. It went above freezing almost every day. As reported in previous posts, ice has been very inconsistent. This a a local headline from last week.

We have been able to maintain a mostly regular hiking schedule and get to play “stick” with Kayla almost every day. This week has been a change week, where temperatures are staying lower. This a.m. (Jan-29) it started at 9F; the forecast is for 15F as a high, with wind.

Snow has been missing as well over the last two weeks and this has allowed us to get a significant collection of every kind of track in the woods. 
Besides the occasional turkey mob strolling through our yard, we find their evidence in the back woods almost everywhere (this includes tracks as well as shallow digging spots littered with fallen leaves). One evening we heard screaming and we found, on a subsequent hike, lots of tracks – turkey and suspiciously looking canine-like, which can be fox or coyote. Traces of reddish-brown snow also suggest an encounter.

On a visit over to the pond, we found a host of accumulated tracks of all kinds. In the image below, taken on the access road to the property-for-sale adjacent to the pond, there are deer, hare, squirrel, dog, man -boots and tires- as well as innumerable unidentifiables. The truck tracks come from, at least in part, from the ice-fishing expedition noted in previous posts.

We can note here that we are at day 318 of the retirement pandemic in Coronaville.