New England advise?

That rest area is fine to park over night, you have Flynn’s in shrewsbury for fuel/shower, you can get into the old grocery store lot up the road to get into the 99 as well or an all town up on 190
In leominster(?) for next time, if you come up from rt2 or 95 you can also get off In Preston and there’s a big dirt lot by the trash plant with a restaurant next door

 

yes winter.......

birds are just coming back.......

 

The copious amounts of road salt used on these snow belt area roads results in a large volume of salt spray; basically wet and melting snow\ water sprayed up by passing vehicles and carried by the created wind tunnels into the trees that grow so close to the road.

Salt is Hydroscopic , meaning it absorbs moisture, so as it is sprayed onto the trees it goes to work sucking the moisture out of the evergreen needles. This stresses the trees obviously, and the yellow color is a sign the tree health is in decline.

As for the birds; they too stay out of the salt spray affected area, as dead and dying trees offer no life sustaining habitat.

If you were to have walked 50 feet out into the woods you would have noticed a thriving eco system.

Hope this helps.

 

Many/most birds leave Vermont for the winter, because their food sources are more limited and they can fly long distance to get out of the cold.
...........
birds came back yesterday- it finally warmed up.

 

True, a lot of species migrate out of here., but not the Cardinals, blue jays, chicadees, nut hatches, grosbeaks, wood peckers etc. These are some of our year-round birds in Northern NH and Vermont.

Some of our migrant birds are back, but we are still waiting on the swallows, hummingbird, Orioles ,blue bird, finches and wrens. But.... The snow is not yet all gone and the ground is still frozen in a lot of places, so it's early yet. For us.

 

Vermont doesn't use "salt" like Mass does. They use a sand mixture. Most of the cars and trucks in VT during the winter have a brown color to them. Like dried mud almost. Lol

 

Like Pennsylvania? “It’s supposed to snow tomorrow: all highways are closed starting tonite just in case”