Early February Bobcat on River Ice

It's the first week of February, and since the second reader's report is still not in, I granted myself permission, this Friday morning, to don snowshoes and trek down through the marsh to the river and beyond to the deciduous woods where I saw the otter last week. Everywhere the wind was still and the woods were quiet, except for the fluting of bluejays, the laughter of pileated woodpeckers, and the pervasive chitter-chatter of little ones: nuthatches, chickadees, and titmouses.

As you can see, the river had frozen over and has opened up again in the past few days. On February first, only so light a creature as the fox squirrel would cross on such thin ice. But two days later, and just after 1:00 a.m., someone larger than the squirrel trod along the thicker ice near the island and took shelter under the bridge. No paw prints show that this creature left. Four and a half hours later, you see that a bobcat approached from the same direction as the first creature and left paw prints that match the spacing of the first creature's.

Even though the camera failed to capture the bobcat as it emerged on the other side of the bridge, you can follow its trail and see that it turned left and apparently crossed the water.

In the nearly two years that Alison and I have lived here, the trail camera has photographed bobcats four or five times, which suggests that we have a healthy population of this secretive predator making its living in the river bottom corridor.

This past Wednesday evening, we had the good fortune, thanks to Gene and Deana Beckham, to meet and visit with Don Stap, author of A Parrot without a Name and Birdsong. Don has traveled in the eastern interior of Peru with ornithologists John O'Neill and Ted Parker. Don reminded us through his stories that it is still possible to see the world for the first time. Every minute of your life never happened before.

Anaconda in the river
Otter in the woods
Parrotlet in the hand
Bobcat on the ice
New birds to know