Cold Continuum.

1-3-18 SHORT HILLS: The deep cold continues in most of the east and other parts of the country. It’s about two weeks now with no warming in sight. A winter ‘hurricane’ is moving up the east coast now and will be a blizzard here and VT in the nest few days. If there are high winds, power outages will happen. The snow here is down to scattered patches. The extended forecast for next week shows moderating temps.

Twenty-five years ago ticks were very rare in VT, but are now present. I wonder it this cold spell will reduce the tick population for next summer. If the ticks over-winter on their hosts maybe the cold won’t matter.

We have lots of slate-colored juncos at the feeders both in NJ and VT. While they are always winter visitors, there seem to be more than usual this year. Could this be an irruption?


Sycamore trees have a distinctive look in winter with bone-white bark on the upper branches, a camo look lower down and greenish-brown at the base.

There seem to be an unusually high number of slate-colored juncos this winter both here and in VT. Is this an irruption?

Female junco, slate-colored, but the white collar is unusual.

There's very little snow here, as you can see.