Mercy's Observations: February 17th

          This February Billings had witnessed some unsteady weather activity, it was almost as if the weather was drawn out of a hat. The indecisive weather activity didn't seem to have any effect on the bird activity around my phenology site. Amazingly, a couple of birds, which I could not identify, were hopping and chirping on the tree that lies upon my site. I had not recalled any bird activity prior to this event.     

     It is crazy how a little extra attentiveness will make a difference with projects of this sort. I should have noticed this before. During a phenology day, I walked around more and climbed the gnarled tree a bit. My discovery? Another cove in the tree deep between two of the large, main branches. Peeking through this mysterious cove, I was eager to find something significant. Nothing. Disappointed, I reminded myself that at least I found the dang cove. 

     Snow had also made an appearance this past month. At the beginning of the school year I had cockily hypothesized that the creek would indeed freeze in the event of winter temperatures. I was wrong. The only ice that I have ever recorded resides at the very edges of the creek, basically nonexistent. I shall remain optimistic throughout the last months of winter, though. I am determined to find some footprints from an animal other than a house pet in snow. Mark my words. 

     I was originally going to post pictures, but my computer doesn't want to be my friend at the moment. That's the cool thing about nature, it doesn't reject you like a computer does.