Another Saturday visit, last day of the month. The weather had changed a bit, the lake was almost covered by a thin coat of ice topped by snow pellets that fell during the night, no ducks were on the lake and very few visitors were around.
The ice was thick enough to hold Canada geese. A hundred or so were on the ice when we arrived, but most left within a few minutes. Gulls were farther away on the ice, they hung around.
The beavers had continued to be busy, bringing down trees. Some of the trees were a good distance from the water and no branches had been cut off and dragged by the beaver . Others had some branches cut off once downed.
One tree was a work-in-progress
The beaver had obviously been successful as the larder next to the lodge looked well supplied. been
Not only beavers go after trees, a dead tree had been attacked by a woodpecker, likely a pileated, at its base.
The chickadees, nuthatches and downy woodpeckers were very keen to get as many sunflower seeds as they could. We had to defend the food supply from a very determined red squirrel.
Cardinals were chirping/squeaking all around but the only one we saw was on the trail picking up seeds someone had left. A junco was not far away. Further up the trail a white-throated sparrow played hide and seek. There is a small flock of robins that don't go south. We saw a few as they flew about, but none would stop for a photo.
The mallards had moved to the Ottawa River, the wood ducks had left for warmer climes. Golden-eye ducks had arrived on the river from wherever they spend their summer. They were riding the current and then would fly back about 2-300 yards. The photo is not the best of them as they were so far away.....
The black squirrel with a white fleck to its tail was looking for food along the trail, while another squirrel was in heaven as it had found a long pile of cracked corn someone had brought down to the river for the ducks.
I found some fleabane still in bloom, they had some buds ready to pop. A viper's bugloss was in its final stage of colour
Some Queen Anne's Lace had lost all its seeds and all that remained was a skeleton of the flower. A tall fluffy head of grass was ready to drop its seeds.
The foliage of the strawberries was turning reddy-orange, but the moss was looking very bright green
