The weather was continuing unusually warm still in mid November. We made an unusual visit to Mud Lake on a Saturday morning. (We usually leave the lake to the many families that visit on the weekends.) Arriving around 9am (late for us) we were surprised at how few cars, and groups on the trails, there were. By the time we left at 10:45, there were over 25 cars and the pathways were getting busy.
My eye was drawn to two different trees standing side by side where we parked - a maple tree with next year's buds all set, next to it a buckthorn tree with it's many berries ready for birds to eat over the winter
While walking along the trails I spotted a young buckthorn tree and a winterberry with a small group of bright red berries
The willow trees seemed reluctant to give up their leaves
The strong backlighting on raspberry canes and sumac stems, made them stand-outs
The beavers have been busy getting ready for winter taking down small trees to fill their larder. The NCC has replaced one of the new trees the beaver had harvested and finally have put protection around the trees planted after the bridge installation. The larder for one beaver lodge had grown in size since out last visit.
Surprisingly there were still some wood ducks and American wigeons around - late in the year for them
Some of the mallards hang around all winter
The chickadees were only too happy to get a handout - but one at time
The wild turkeys seemed to have gathered for a parade down the trail. There were at least 25 - 30 of them (some didn't make the photo). Likely two families getting together. The youngsters (bottom left) still had blueish faces and no red wattles on their necks like mum on the bottom right.
A pileated woodpecker was hammering away at a tree. The sun was behind him so the photo took a bit of work to make it barely acceptable
There seemed to be a good number of squirrels around. The past few months the squirrel numbers had seemed quite low. We had assumed the coyotes or mink, had been successfully hunting them. There was evidence that the squirrels had been successfully hunting pine cones.
While it was above zero that morning, we had had a few days of lows below zero during the nights. In a few quiet, shaded bays there was ice on the lake - hints of weather to come
