December 14-20, 2025
Dropping into the cold
With another atmospheric river following on the heels of last week's big storm, the week was generally drab and rainy. However, temperatures dropped significantly over the last couple of days, and we finally received the snow we've been waiting for.
Week in Review
Despite gray skies and rain, a large and hardy group of birders showed up in Twisp for the Christmas Bird Count last Sunday. This annual tradition is a great excuse to hang out with other nature enthusiasts and scour every nook and cranny of the valley for birds. I don't have the final tally yet, but I know that folks found a few unusual birds like snow bunting, common redpoll, Harris's sparrow, and marsh wren.
Although we also had several lovely, sunny days this week, I was surprised at how quiet things felt, even in the sun. Red-tailed hawks were out hunting, and a few sparrows and chickadees were flitting around, but newly arriving trumpeter swans were the only highlight this week.
The valley's bigger lakes still have open water, so swans have been hanging out for over a month now, but I noticed more adults with juveniles arriving this week. It's possible that young birds need a bit of extra time to build up their strength and confidence before heading south, so family groups might lag behind adults that don't have offspring and migrate early.
Temperatures have been unusually warm this fall and winter, and it seems to be having an impact on plants and animals. Bitterroots are already emerging from the ground to get a head start on spring, and a pair of bald eagles were spotted examining their nest that had been damaged in this week's wind storm.
This spell of relatively warm, wet weather has also been great news for lichens that need moisture to photosynthesize and grow. We have a fantastic variety of lichens in the Methow Valley, and I can only hope that someone decides to study and survey them one day because it would be an awesome project.
While this fall has been unusually warm so far, our luck changed at the end of the week, with nighttime temperatures dropping into the low 20s and Big Twin Lake finally starting to freeze over on December 19 (last year it happened on December 9). At the same time, another big storm and a significant dump of snow created some dramatic scenes. Let's keep our fingers crossed that this is the start of the ski season, too!
And speaking of snow and the arrival of winter, mark your calendars because I'll be offering a free talk on winter ecology next Saturday at the Winthrop Library. The talk will be at 2 pm on December 27th. This is a fantastic topic, and I'll see you there!
Wishing everyone a happy holiday, and I hope you take a moment to celebrate your favorite nature newsletter with a paid subscription or the gift of a generous donation. Thank you!!!
