The Arctic connection. According to weather forecasters, the breeding ground for the Northern Hemisphere’s coldest air masses is eastern Siberia. Last week The New York Times reported that temperatures in the Russian town of Verkhoyansk, in the heart of the Siberian tundra, had “seldom risen above minus 60 degrees” this January.

The Times attributes frigid weather in the Northeast to cold air masses traveling across the North Pole from Siberia. What’s sobering for me, after two weeks of single digit nighttime temperatures, is the fact that a “normal” January for Verkhoyansk means temperatures of 40 degrees below zero.

January’s light. There’s no daylight more brilliant than the kind we enjoy when a January cold front sweeps through. With the sun moving steadily north, it’s also a catalyst for animal behavior.

In the barn the goats are butting heads again, although the thermometer in their quarters registers 25 degrees. And the light has inspired the chickens to triple their egg production.

Very soon, Great Horned Owls will modulate their hooting and begin to incubate new eggs. An average clutch consists of 2 to 3 eggs, placed in a tree cavity or an abandoned hawk’s nest. After hatching in early March, young birds will witness the return of geese and turkey buzzards.

The river. On January 26, I shuffled and slid to an active fishing hole in the Big Eddy at Narrowsburg and measured 12.5 inches of ice—an increase of four inches from the week before.

Ah spring! January 23 brought the first sign of spring to Barrow, on the northern tip of Alaska. At 1:07 p.m., the sun rose above the horizon in Barrow for the first time since November 18!