HOLDEN – Toward the end of January, I always remind myself of the beauty of winter. That’s because one needs to find things to appreciate in a difficult, long season.

Winter highlights for nature lovers are the beauty of snow and ice formations, the starkness of the dormant trees in winter, the clearness of the winter sky at night, the mysteries of tracks (what animal made them, what was it doing?), and the marvel of winter birds – so hardy, and very different species from summer birds.

The Inuits had many names for snow formations: “Falling snow,” Annui; “Snow on the ground,” Api; “Snow that collects horizontally on branches,” Qali; “White stripe up the tree,” Kanik.

At the Fields Pond Audubon Center, we have a list of Inuit snow names, and we sometimes send children outside to find those snow formations.

Snowflakes have different names. Whenever I’m outside and it snows, I look at my jacket sleeve to see the shapes of snowflakes. Hexagonal plates or stellar crystals are beautiful, capped columns are beautiful and rare, and the other kinds are just tiny, disappointing blobs or needles. But it’s always fun to check, and adults and children alike are thrilled with the beauty of snowflakes.

Winter birding has been wonderful this season. This has been a winter of many pine grosbeaks, red polls and bohemian waxwings, all beautiful birds. Northern shrikes, never common, have been around in more numbers than usual.

Snow tracking is always fascinating. Most tracks are made by common mammals -squirrels, mice, snowshoe hares and deer. Where are they going? It’s usually about food, or shelter.

Predator tracks are less abundant, but they’re out there, also looking for food. Weasel, fisher, coyote and fox tracks are found in the woods, but also in town. Sometimes you can find evidence of a predation event -signs of a struggle, thrashing, and drops of blood, the end for the mouse but lunch for the fox.

But if you’re tired of winter, listen to the chickadees. Ever optimistic, they will start singing their spring song any day now, a soft whistled “fee-bee.”

For information on Fields Pond Audubon Center, call 989-2591.