A preview of spring

Last week, we had a brief taste of spring. The weather was unseasonably mild and sunny. It seemed like everyone was outside enjoying the brief respite from winter. I scrambled to go out in the field to this nice mature wooded site in northern New Jersey. We were looking for owls and potential nests. It was a site where the walking was easy and the prickers were kept at a minimum. No owls were spotted but several stick nests and one tree cavity were noted. We'll keep our eyes on those when the season officially starts in March.

This very large wooded site and the warm weather had me on alert for bears. There just has to be some hibernating bears on this site, but I didn't see any signs. Maybe up in the higher hills which we mostly avoided. Apparently some bears will wake up in the middle of winter if the weather is warm. They will come out and look for food. Once the weather turns wintry, they head back into hibernation mode. I'm predicting at some point in the future that bears will no longer hibernate in New Jersey. The easy access to garbage and the warming trend will make them a year-round presence.

One thing of interest during my outing was this large tree that is propped up. Either the ground subsided or perhaps the tree grew partially on top of a rotting stump. After awhile the stump would go back to nature and voila you have a tree that's raised up. These are all just theories of course. I also found this interesting rock with all sorts of pastel shades. The picture does not show it well, so you'll just have to try to visualize it.

After our warm spell, we had over a day worth of insane wind. People were killed by falling trees and trees were down everywhere. It was so windy at the office that I thought someone was humming when I first walked in. Then I realized it was the wind howling through the cracks and heating/a/c roof units. It also sounded like someone's cell phone vibrator was going crazy from the wind. I don't know if this wind vane was the casuality of this storm or that's just the way it's always been. But this sad weather vane that I made the bf take a photo was at East Jersey Olde Town. My camera just couldn't get a good far away shot. While at Olde Town, everything was given a prefix of "olde." We didn't take the tour to see the insides of the old buildings so I peered in the windows instead. So there was ye olde electric outlet, handicap ramp, card table, folding chairs, a/c unit, etc. It was a bit of a bummer to see the insides mostly filled with folding chairs and other modern day office junk. But what can you do.