These photos are from Nature Up North's first hike event of 2025, a snowshoe to Rainbow Falls. This trailhead starts on the Tooley Pond Rd, which is plowed but can be victim to variable road conditions. The trail is .3 miles to the falls and is largely flat, but features a wooden bridge at the falls built by the DEC, with a short jump up directly after. If you snowshoe to the falls, be aware of where there is real ground beneath your feet, and not drifts on top of treetops next to the gorge. Always stay within the treeline. 

These are photos shared with me by a community member, Blair Madore, who was snowshoeing the Kip Trail from the Pike Road trail entrance. This porcupine, tracks, and bite marks can be found about a mile down the trail at the first bridge you hit if you enter from Pike Road, or 1.5 miles down the trail at the second bridge if you start from the Wachtmeister Field Station. 

I was visiting the dike area at Upper Lower Lake WMA and very little was to be seen, but with the binoculars I could see some movement at the far side of the frozen lake.  

I took a photo, but even with a 600mm lens, it was barely a speck in the picture.

It took me about 30 minutes to get from the dike to the marsh overlook viewing platform, which was near the location of the coyote, but as I figured it was no longer around.

We had a gorgeous 6" of wet snow last night and the groomed nordic trails on the SLU golf course look beautiful. What a great snowy winter we're having!

While driving around looking for birds with a friend, we got lucky and spotted this Barred Owl perched on some wires over a field! The owl seemed to be hunting - they were turning their head in all directions as if scanning for sounds. When we drove back a bit later the owl was still in the same area, just perched on a tree instead. 

With the Upper and Lower Lakes frozen over, the section of Oswegatchie bordering it has become a hunting ground for this Eagle.



It has shown up just about every day for the past week or so, and is sitting in a tree overlooking the river.



I walked out on the porch to attempt to get a photo, but it immediately knew I was there and we looked at each other.

It decided to move on to a different spot, but as I've seen it in that same tree and on the same branch 4 days over the past week, I know it will be back.

A group of common merganser have made this section of the Oswegatchie their temporary home for the past few weeks.



This section of river has had consistently open water this winter, so it's made for a terrific feeding area for these birds.



They don't like when I go out there, and they will swim downstream immediately, but I decided to stay wait them out, and despite it being around 20 degrees it was worth it.  As they did make their way back and as I laid in the snow, they swam, dove, ate and chased each other for the next hour.