General Update

I haven't really sat down to update in awhile, so I'll covered a few new things.
We got some nice snow accumulation about 2 weeks ago, which was also my first snow experience in Maryland for about 3 years. I've grown used to dry powdery snow in Montana, so the wet, icy snow of Maryland is quite different for me. We usually get at least one big snow storm a year in Maryland with significant accumulation (save my senior year of high school when we failed to accumulate any snow days), so I look forward to another big snowfall as Spring draws closer.

This picture doesn't really reflect how much actually fell, this was pretty early on when I was visiting my old debris hut.

This hut is in very poor condition, and I was going to tear it apart earlier and rebuild it so I could use it when snow came, but the snow beat me to the chase. I was looking through the contents of the shelter and found a bundle of milkweed stalks and some polypore fungus I had left last December. I also left an elk knuckle bone, however it appears the local animals have made off with that. It always amuses me to find things I've left from the previous year.

I spent some time exploring the woods in the hills above Ellicott City this past week and found an exceptionally large deer rub. I'm no expert on deer rubs, though I enjoy finding them, but I'd say this is from a rather large buck, judging by its distance from the ground. My friend who hunts further west of Ellicott City agreed that a very large deer made this. It does seem unusual to me that it would be on such a thick tree. I see them on smaller saplings usually.

Older beings and interesting finds

While traveling down a bike/walking trail through the woods, I stumbled upon a very old being. It's a very, very old Tulip Poplar tree. And being so old, it is also the largest Tulip Poplar I have ever seen. Its diameter is easily 10 foot, even with me and three friends we couldn't go completely around it. I'm not sure how long Tulip Poplars live, but I'd say it has been there for at least the last 50 years. There were no other trees nearby this large. Surprisingly it had no names or anything carved into the bark, or any visible serious damage, unlike some other old trees near here. The bark was actually looking rather decayed with age, but the upper branches looks alive and well, so I expect this tree to be around for many years to come.

Later on our way back home we stopped in a clearing near a creek. While exploring the creek a hawk (I'm not sure which species) flew in front of me and around to join up with its mate. I headed in their direction and found 2 feathers on the ground from them, in addition to a whitetail deer heading away from me. On the way back across the creek I found a large antler. Quite a rare find this late into summer, the squirrels usually get to them fairly early. This antler has no marks from squirrels or mice chewing on them.