I spent two hours in a winter wonderland at Petrie the day after freezing rain and some 4-5" of snow. The trails and trees were all coated with snow. It would only have been better had it be a clear sunny day.
Coming down Tweddle Road from the Queensway...
Walking the trails
Scenes along shoreline of Turtle Pond
Two muskrats were sitting on the edge of the ice halfway out in Turtle Pond chewing on reeds
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Based on the size of the footprint, I think this was the track of a beaver crossing the trail between Turtle Pond and the River
A single red squirrel was towards the western end of the trail
No need to be cautious of poison ivy....
Various berries were crowned by fresh snow
Carrion-flower berries (a.k.a Coonberries)
Invasive buckthorn berries
Highbush cranberries
Bittersweet
Other plants were endowed with snow as well
The grasses and ferns were bent over in the snow
The chickadees and nuthatches were looking for a handout
The cardinals were looking after themselves thank you very much
The waterfowl were being very shy
The Canada geese (infiltrated by mallards at times) would swim away as soon as they were aware of my presence on the trail.
The mallards would turn their backs on me
And the common golden-eyes stayed a long way out in the river and some flew off into the light snow
Some snowflakes were caught up in two strands of spider webs.
(The photos are quite bad, but I left them because of the uniqueness)
A few sticks caught in the ice of Muskrat Bay were very noticeable.
One reminded me of walking stick insect😊
There were interesting ice patterns on Muskrat Bay
It is still very early in the winter, so small, rippling "waves" were lapping at the shoreline on the River