January

Gray Jay on rime ice covered spruce above 4000 feet on Mt. Tom, White Mountains, NH

The world above 4000 feet in the White Mountains in New Hampshire in winter is enchanting. Everything is buried in feet of snow, and the trees are encased in delicate rime ice formations. Gray Jays (aka Canada Jays Perisoreus canadensis) live only in the boreal forest of the northern parts of North America and are common on many of the higher summits of the White Mountains, the farthest islands of boreal forest that make up the southern fringe of their range. I picked a socked in, lightly snowing day in January of 2020 to hike to the summit of Mt. Tom 4050' to capture these beautiful birds in the rime ice encrusted trees. The frozen fingertips and effort of lugging the weight of the telephoto lens were rewarded by shots like this one.