February 2025 Backyard Bulletin

Cover photo by Bridger Layton

View the full edition at this link.

I was recently watching a video clip where Thor Hanson (who will be giving a First Tuesday talk in May) says that "a snowfall doesn't cover up your yard, it reveals it, telling you everything that passed by in the night, or when you weren't looking." I love this idea, and it feels particularly true when we get longer periods between snows. This year's long, cold, sunny, dry spell preserved our surface snow and allowed the stories written by animals to layer upon one another. Deep in the forest, the tracks left behind became some version of a public bulletin board covered from corner to corner with animal events postings: a creekside moose convention, a sock hop for snowshoe hares, a paragliding class for grouse, a potluck for eagles (meet up at the dead deer carcass at 6pm). Anthropomorphizing aside, walking (or sliding) through the woods between snowstorms this year has been such a wonderful reminder that this place is always teeming with more-than-human creatures. I like humans quite a lot, but what a joy it is to explore places where the wild footprints often outnumber our own.

Bridger Layton, Education Programs Coordinator