April is the month when Spring weather typically calls out, “Ready or not, here I come,” and compels nature and humans of New York to come out from winter hiding.
“Happy is the farmer who has got everything ready for the active labors of the coming season. But no matter how thoroughly he is prepared there will always be plenty to do,” the agriculture columnist wrote in the April 25th, 1874 Ticonderoga Sentinel.
The task list was long and varied in the month of getting ready to make hay while the sun shines. [Read more…] about Small Farms in April in the Nineteenth Century
Winter is the time when wildlife activity ebbs. Many residents of our fields and forests have retreated to shelters beneath the surface of the soil in an attempt to escape this season of low temperatures, snow and ice, and little if any food.
Most of the invertebrates that populate this climatic zone are well suited to deal with sudden thaws in winter by experiencing a type of dormancy known as diapause.
With its long legs, the white-tail deer has the ability to travel through a snow bound forest when there is up to 12 to 16 inches on the ground. As the snow pack becomes denser, crusted, or deeper, the mobility of this hoofed creature becomes greatly restricted. 
Although the number of Sullivan County hotels open during the winter months increased significantly beginning in the 1940s, there were attempts to market the county as a winter resort long before that. 
I consider the lack of biting insects and other invertebrates, to be a wondrous gift of the winter season.
There are only a few dozen species of birds capable of surviving the rigors of an Adirondack winter, and of these, the wild turkey is one that is more closely associated with the warmer and less snowy regions of New York than those to the north. 
Lake Champlain froze completely on January 8th, 1887, missing by just two days the seventy-year record for earliest freeze.
Reindeer have been soaring since long before Christmas came into being. For some reason, the fly agaric mushroom (Amanita muscaria), a lovely red-and-white polka-dotted ‘shroom bearing an uncanny resemblance to a Christmas ornament, is attractive to these creatures. It’s also hallucinogenic, and Comet, Cupid, and loads of other blitzed reindeer have been observed lurching about after munching the mushrooms (Santa’s sleigh makes more sense after you learn about this little reindeer game).
One night just before Christmas last year, my youngest daughter and I opted to walk the short distance home from dinner at my parents’ house, rather than drive with the rest of the family. Our eyes adjusted to the night, and the snow beneath our feet shimmered, even in the winter darkness. As we emerged from the cover of trees into our open field, we were thrilled to see so many stars shining brilliantly in the night sky.