Winter Solstice

Winter solstice has arrived. The stillness of the sleepy forest invites the cultivation of interior stillness for the human wanderer. The space of nothingness that’s left where mental chatter and obsessive desire are allowed to settle is the place where peace and joy will make a home. May the love, simplicity, peace, joy, and compassion in our hearts be magnified in proportion to the duration and intensity of light from now to the solstice of summer.

Current Nature Attraction: Snow Geese in Malone, NY

It was a couple of hours after dawn. I stood along the shores of the lake at Malone Rec Park, just 5 miles north of the Blue Line. I was there to witness a spectacle that rarely occurs in such magnitude in the Adirondack Park. After a few minutes of waiting, the first line of snow geese appeared overhead. A hundred white bodies marked by black primary wing feathers was a sight to behold! The flock circled twice before descending, wings slightly bent and feet outstretched, they landed on the water among thousands of Canada geese. I waited there for 45 minutes. By the time I left, six more flocks of snow geese had joined the ranks of that initial flock. 

The geese that show up at Malone Rec Park between October and November are enroute to somewhere in the continental US where they'll spend their winter. Many will end up in the Chesapeake Bay. Just think, the snow geese who make a home in the Arctic Tundra in the summer and the Chesapeake in the winter offer visitors to Malone Rec Park like you and me a glimpse into two very different landscapes through our observation of the birds who call these places home. 

This migration stopover goes back generations for the snow geese. It's part of a travel route that young geese have learned from their goose elders. It's an amazing spectacle that you can enjoy too. If you are there in the morning, you'll get to see hundreds of geese descending from the skies as they come in for a landing on the lake. If you're there in the afternoon, you'll get to see the lake covered by thousands of geese. If you're there in the evening, you'll get to watch them take flight in groups to continue their migration southward. 

If you'd like to learn more about the geese and their habits, or even get some help looking for rarities such as Cackling goose and Ross's goose (far from guaranteed!), think about hiring a Birding Guide. Wild Neighbors Nature Connection is an Adirondack Guide service that can help to enrich your Snow Goose experience. For a full look at Wild Neighbors Nature Connection offerings, visit www.wnnc.net, and check out the experiences tab.

The Way of the Whirligig Beetle

In the misty morning air,

Raindrops ride the skies under gravity's tug.

Perched on a rock at pond's edge,

I watch wind rock limbs of overhanging trees.

Raindrops drip,

Surface ripples.

Beetle sized waves collide, coalesce.

Whirligigs whirl about, ride, and spiral upon the water's tension,

Their path unimpeded by stormy sea.

Over, around, and through the waves,

They've plotted a course.

They'll see it through.

A resolute way to journey through life.

The way of the Whirligig Beetle.

To Be a Moth in the Forest

Today I spent time in a pine-balsam forest. 

The sun's bright warm rays reached right down through a hole in the canopy that was opened when a giant from yesteryear fell a few months back. I'd found a good spot here to take in the view. With my feet firmly planted on soft cushy needles, my gaze lifted skywards in wonder. 

I see the spiry tops of a million cathedrals. Every nook and cranny of trunk and bough of each holy place teeming with happy moss and lichen civilizations. Civilizations within which mites move about and moths emerge as friendly forest fairies. 

Life as a moth among arboreal mossy abodes in the great forest sanctuary would seem delightfully sweet.  To rest by day tucked between secret mossy tufts and to dance on the wing among fragrant balsam branches in the moon's soft glow at night.

But for the moth who dwells in the pine-balsam forest, nature's balance will surely be struck by threats of the appetites of creeper below, of nuthatch above, and of brown bats on the wing when the day has run its course and the sun has set. 

To be moth, to be human, is not without risk. Though for moth risk is greater, think of the gift. To be a moth among moss-covered balsams but for a moment would be a gift for eternity. 

Decomposing Log Communities

One of the joys of living in New York's Adirondack Park is that there are decomposing logs all over the forest. Each decomposing log is host to its own little world of fungi, mosses, liverworts, vascular plants, and arthropods. 

When you're out hiking the trails it's often the visible animals like toads, snakes, and birds that capture our attention.

When the diet of animals like toads, snakes, and birds is considered it becomes clear just how important it is that there are healthy decomposing logs in our forests. Without the decomposing logs that host a buffet of arthropods, larger insectivorous animals would not have enough food. You can help by following Leave No Trace Principles the next time you build a campfire.

One of the Leave No Trace principles is to minimize campfire impacts by gathering firewood that is dead, down, dinky, and distant. Dead and down means 1) no longer living and 2) on the ground. Dinky and distant means 1) smaller than your wrist in circumference and 2) collected at least 200 feet from your designated campsite. 

By following these Leave No Trace Principles in this way you can help to make sure that there will be community-supporting decomposing log communities all throughout our forests, even in proximity to designated campsites in the Adirondack Park.