Pretty bleak weather lately with no sun and temps hovering around 20 degrees. Looks like people have already been skiing up and down Shingle Creek. If I can find a pair of snowshoes I think I'd like to try 'em out there this winter. I did manage to spot one deer on the north side and the photo is another good example of how enclosed the park is by houses.
Decided to take a different trail today and glad I did. Right before the end of the trail I came right up on this doe who was much more interested in foraging than in me. Every time her head went behind a tree, I inched up a little closer. 
As I leaned against a tree to steady my camera, I watched her plunge her snout into the snow over and over again in search of food. Only once or twice did she bother to look up at me and at this point I was only about fifteen feet away! 
During this time I kept catching a glimpse of movement further behind and I knew at least three more were close. After a while two of them got curious enough to walk up close enough for a photo. Hard to tell now but I'm pretty sure the one on the right is one of the fawns born this spring.
I hadn't noticed these cool little "hanging" birds nests before but now it seems like they are everywhere. There's one in just about every tall tree. They're usually pretty high up so I zoomed in on this one just to see what it looked like. No idea what kind of birds build these but it must take them weeks. Something else I really wanted to get a photo of before it was gone was some greenery against the snow. 
It's pretty amazing that anything can stay green this far into December. I think I read or heard somewhere that Robins have adapted to eating seeds in the winter and can stay in Minnesota all year. Not sure if this is the case with all or just some of them but here's one that's decided to tough it out.
Last Saturday December 12th started off nice but turned gloomy by the time I was out walking and there was a noticeable line in the sky showing the change. After hardly seeing any deer in the past month, I was excited to see this one, even though far off in the distance towards the middle of the park. 
Not too long after, I spotted two more, then two more, then a group of six! The group of six were in an area I'd never cared to look before -right in someone's back yard. 
At first I only noticed one standing in front of a small storage shed but after watching for a minute I realized there were five more right up by a house. They must have had a feeder or something. 
I tried to get a shot of the group but they were far away and had also noticed me already. All of them looked like does I thought. Heading around the east side I saw two more right off the trail, bringing the total to thirteen. Not too bad; my previous high count was eleven.
