February 2021 Observations and Field Notes

Jeff Clarke shares some winter observations from a February that saw rain, sleet, sunshine and snow.

In early February, unseasonably warm temperatures melted snow and ice into a bay of wild rice.

On my way up the hill, I almost tripped on this abandoned horse-drawn sickle bar mower

Voles mowed the cambium off several rabbitbrush stems in Partridge Alley. The girdled branches will die.

Ten inches of snow blanketed the landscape on the 8th of February.

Several coyotes used the plowed roads for easier travel.

The snow clung to branches for several days.

Blue skies and sunshine arrived a week later, settling snow into the landscape.

A large flock of bohemian waxwings congregated on the riverside to dine on insects.

A pack of coyotes acquired a frozen turtle.

Earlier in the year, this coyote also perished along the Bitterroot River.