The first two weeks were unseasonably warm, and then literally overnight winter arrived....
The NCC, and the beavers, had been busy cutting trees and brush before winter set in. One of the NCC workers had been leaving a nice tree design on the cut trunks. The beavers were stocking their larders, with small trees sometimes harvesting a good distance from the water.
Judging by the quantity of buckhorn berries on the tree, we might be in for a harsh winter.
There were of course lots of birds about. Including some mourning doves which I guess I had never given the time of day to, but they are quite pretty. The cardinal with a a damaged wing feather was doing just fine. (It was pictured in last month's Mud Lake PhotoStory)
More birds about: Canadas inbound, a decent shot (finally) of a hooded merganser, a female common merganser with a wing feather out of kilter, a turkey stare down, a female mallard looking up in the light, a black duck and a great blue heron looking for a fish luncheon..
Black ducks are often (easily) confused with female mallards.
Male black duck in front, male mallard behind to left and female mallard behind to right.
Cardinals, turkeys and juncos were all checking the ground for food.
Then someone turned the thermostat down overnight and two days later most of the ducks and geese were gone.
The ducks and the geese still here, faced a new challenge - ice (and cold)
The patterns in the end grain of the cut trees stood out against the snow.
What few fall colours that were left were sparser and more brittle.
The stump used by the Canada geese in May looked very different!
The turkeys, which the week before were out on Britannia Road, were gathered together along side the trail in the snow.
I had spotted a black squirrel with a partial white tail before the snow arrived, then I found a grey squirrel with a somewhat similar tail. The grey squirrels seem to have plumped up considerably, maybe another sign of a long cold winter?
A pair of cardinals hiding behind brush, were making it difficult to take their pictures, while some downy woodpeckers were busy digging out insects.
But other birds were very happy to see us on a cold winter's morning.
