A real winter, for once

A Real Winter, for once – January 2026

At last, we are having a real winter here. The snow, in some parts of our woods, reaches four feet deep in places. The night-time temperatures have been down to 16 below zero F (-27 C) twice. Since sometime in December, the cold has been maintained consistently, except for one thaw, lasting a day, which created a layer of ice. But even that was quickly covered over by new snow. We are hoping that the consistent low temperatures are doing their job to kill off the insect pests that cause trouble for native trees like White Ash, Hemlock, White Spruce, and Balsam Fir.

Birders always hope that this kind of climate will bring northern visitors down from Canada. I can’t say that has really happened, at least not in the Northeast Kingdom. No Snowy Owls, no large flocks of foraging finches. I think this may partly be due to the historic drought that we had in late summer, which discouraged the fruit trees and might have reduced the seed crop from grasses and weeds. A small group of Pine Grosbeaks has been present on an erratic basis, foraging near the top of hardwoods, but mostly just using our roads for grit.

Pine Grosbeak, female

Evening Grosbeaks have visited our feeders a few times, but since they didn’t stay, I suspect they were transients on their way farther south.

We had one visiting finch from the far north, a Redpoll. It accompanied the more persistent group of about 40 American Goldfinches that use seed feeders in the yard. Redpolls can have big years in Vermont, but this does not seem to be one of them. In February 2021, we had a flock of a few dozen Redpolls. This year, just a single bird has appeared in our yard on three separate days.  It looked to be in the Common Redpoll race. For a long time, taxonomists recognized Common and Hoary Redpolls as separate species, with the Hoary inhabiting the Arctic north. But analysis of the genetics has erased the distinction, and Common and Hoary are now considered to be in a spectrum of regional forms of the single species Redpoll.

Redpoll

The most exciting event of the winter was the appearance of an American Mink. It showed up on the last day of January, and inspected our yard carefully around the bird feeder and wood shed. A pair of Red Squirrels has sought shelter in one of our sheds, and most likely left a lot of squirrel scent all around the property. The mink went around and got up to speed on where they are lurking. I would not be surprised if the mink returns at night to snack on one of them, now that it knows where to look.

American Mink, pausing briefly on its foraging run

It was entertaining to watch the mink bounding through the deep, powdery snow, sometimes moving below the surface for a stretch and then popping its head above to look around.

The mink surfacing after submerging (below, right)

Once it departed, I looked around and identified several mink trails over the deep snowpack. I suspect the mink came up from the creek below our house. It crossed a few hundred meters of open field, a potentially risky maneuver given hawks and Barred Owls on patrol. It looked under our deck and around the house foundation, and then inspected all of the places in the yard that accommodate squirrels. I stepped outside to secure these photos, and even one short video sequence of the lively loping gait of this dark weasel. It created more tracks across the open snow up to the road and back again. Our Red Squirrels must have been petrified, likely holding still high in the trees as this fierce predator made its rounds below. Given the mess the rodents make in our shed, I am dearly hoping for the mink to administer a population control program in the coming months.

This mink is not deterred by four feet of powder snow