It had been a busy month but hearing about the active beavers at Petrie I had to make a point of getting down. I arrived about 90 minutes before sunset and started looking for the beavers.
There was another person there who told me where the beavers usually were; she was there looking for an otter.
No luck with the beavers early on, but while standing near the water just short of the end trail, I spotted an otter 200 yards away and managed a fuzzy photo. We walked down to where the otter was to see if I could get a better shot, only to find he was now on the ice about 50 feet from where I was standing when I first saw him!! So another fuzzy shot from 200 yards🙄
(Both photos are tightly cropped to the extent the fuzziness would allow)
He swam back towards us, but was too quick to get a decent photo.
Walking along the trail I spotted a single tom wild turkey on the far shore. No female turkeys were in sight. Later on at the large sandy area half way down the trail, there was lots of evidence of the turkeys having been there.
There is still a thin layer of ice in some spots on the ponds
And where the small waves have been coming ashore along the river, there is ice accumulation on the shoreline bushes/branches
Unless my memory is faulty, I don't recall any Canada Geese at Petrie when I first started dropping by some 25± years ago. Now there are skeins upon skeins flying over. The flocks seem to get smaller as the dusk gets stronger.
Then not much before sunset we spotted a beaver way over on the far side in amongst a small group of hooded mergansers. But they were a long long way off....
As the sun was setting, a few beavers came closer, but the light was bad (Can't please everyone🙄)
The sun dipped below the horizon painting the sky with beautiful colours
Then finally, in the dying light, I managed to be in the right place at the right time for some nice beaver close-ups
Walking back to car as it was getting darker, one of several muskrats I had seen gave me a chance for a photo op
Not far from the muskrat was a pair of Canada Geese. Seemed that one was acting as a look out while the other fed on water weeds.
