7:18 a.m. 30 degrees, wind WSW 5 mph. Sky: gray, a reluctant sun, strands of pink. Light, small-grained snow, more than a flurry, less than a snowfall. Even though no two snowflakes look alike, this alleged storm might only have inspired Wilson Snowflake Bentley. Intermittent streams: springlike flow, a muted whisper. Permanent streams: slightly less water, much less ice, volume up, a hypnotic broadcast. Dogs know when it's time to sit and groom. Wetlands: marsh through a snow-screen, spruce and hemlock edged in white, a filagree of snow. Pines not so much—needles too long, branches also widely spaced. Pond: a peaceful rerun of the past five days.
Ruffed grouse crossed the road, one foot after the other, a straight line of delicate chicken tracks. Deer leaped the lower stream. Coyote traces the road. Chickadees at the neighbors. Jays in the front yard. Ernie, the Hungarian partridge, missing for days. No sign of fowl play.
A male pileated (red of crest extends below eyes) disembowels a pine—soft taps and chips, flying bits of wood just off the driveway. Stops. Chases a hairy woodpecker, which squeals, hits the high notes. Pileated returns to pine, claws dug in—two toes in front, two behind—stiff tail pressed to bark. Leans back and hammers . . . crested head a blur. No concussion here. A spongy cranium (cancellous bone), a shock-absorber at the upper mandible base, consumes the blow. A slightly longer lower mandible strikes wood first, straight-on, directing the force of each impact to another spongy bone (hyoid), which anchors an elastic, inquisitive tongue.
Humans evolved to pound feet first, to run almost forever. Woodpeckers face first, to jackhammer all day. End result: everybody gets a good night's sleep.
Ah, "Snowflake" Bentley. I've hung his poster here at our retirement community over the years, until it tore, and sadly, it's "out of stock" now--but then most things, including us, are eventually "out of stock" :-) Just have to treasure the time we're given, and he surely did: https://vermontsnowflakes.com/products/snowflake-bentley-poster?variant=12937621504099
The quote on the poster reads: "I have found no exact duplicate. In this inexhaustible storehouse of crystal treasures, what a delight is in store for all future lovers of snowflakes and of the beautiful in nature."
Another lover of snowflakes has inspired me--Kenneth Libbrecht, a professor of physics at CalTech. I've given his books to many friends--certainly William Blake saw the world in a grain of sand, and Libbrecht shares that wonder in his snowflake photography.
http://www.snowcrystals.com/
Ah, how these small miracles can save us, daily, if we just pay attention. Hope Ernie is all right.