If you are feeling a little chilly this morning, you can take comfort in knowing that the earth reached its closest distance to the sun early this morning in the northern hemisphere. This seems contrary to what one might think since we have just entered the beginning weeks of winter. Apparently being three million miles closer to the sun is not significant as far as temperatures go since it is actually the tilt of the earth that determines the seasons. And in that regard, we are shifting closer to the sun and eventual warmer days! A great resource for tracking celestial activity is
EarthSky.org.
After two weeks of bare ground, we finally woke up to snow this morning.
Unfortunately, and what seems to be happening more frequently, the snow turned to sleet and then rain. The high is supposed to be 46 degrees today. As always, the ice makes for some unique shots.
I also awoke this morning to some chirping that I have not heard in a while. When I looked over at our bird feeder there were several American Goldfinches in their winter plumage.
In northern regions goldfinches will migrate south and it seems that it has only been in recent years that we now see these birds in the winter in New Hampshire. Perhaps these came down from Canada?
Welcome 2015. I can't wait to see what nature has in store for us this year.
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