Minks Me Thinks

My visit to the park today was exciting as I spotted something brand new -and totally unexpected! Near the very end of my walk I was crossing the foot bridge over Shingle Creek on the south side. Way off in the distance I noticed something dark out in the water (or ice) that looked a bit unfamiliar. After the bridge I hung a sharp right onto the trail that follows the creek up stream and walked quietly just in case it wasn't just a Mallard I'd seen. At the end of the trail out near the railroad ties, I noticed something moving out on the ice. As I followed it back behind the thicket behind me, another similar shape came into view across the other side of the creek. It walked right out onto the thin ice, slinked into and under the water, popped out on my side of the creek and scurried into the same thick brush. At the time I really had no idea as to what they were and my first thought is that they were Otters. I really didn't want to scare them off so I was zooming in as far as my camera would go. You can tell from this second and subsequent photos that it was taken just before he dipped into the water to swim across. I wondered what in the world could so easily plunge into -and under- this freezing water. After losing track of the one who'd gone under the water, I spotted some movement in that thick brush behind me and decided to scope it out. I loudly crunched my way into the area, thinking I'd scared off everything and just crouched there for a few minutes. Sure enough, one popped out of a burrow right in front of me and scurried toward the creek. I could see exactly where their path was and how they were crossing the creek to the other side. I admit, I'm not all that familiar with Mammals but my field guide from Stan Tekiela was helpful in verifying them as Minks versus Otters or Weasels. Some of the more distinctive characteristics matching up nearly perfectly with the field guide are; white patch on the chin, short round ears, larger size and darker tail near the tip. Also the description of it's thick, oily, waterproof fur allowing it to swim in near freezing water pretty much convinced me I had the right animal. This last picture is of the burrow I saw them coming in an out of. Too bad, their burrows are described as temporary as Minks are always on the move looking for their next meal. A male Mink is also said to maintain a territory of 40 acres -which is 1/5th of the whole Palmer Lake area. Hopefully I will see them again. Be sure to click on the photos for larger images!

Cold Friday and Curious Deer

After the snow rolled on out it got really cold for Thanksgiving and the day after. When I left the house this Friday morning it was a whopping 5º above zero! I guess the Pheasants must like this weather because I saw five of them. All were in flight however so I didn't get a single picture. I did take close to forty pictures though -all of deer, and even of the same group. There were six of them in all but two were kind of their own, back further and in the same area on the north side where I've gotten really close before. Today was the same as I watched them fight over food from a very close distance. When the Does would find something to eat, the Fawns would push their face right up towards her mouth hoping to share. The Does would have none of it and rear back and pull away. I felt a bit bad for the Fawns but I suppose they need to learn to find their own food eventually and not rely on mom forever. It was a bright, clear, sunny day and at this proximity I was getting one good photo after another. I had a hard time choosing just three for this post but I thought this one of the fawn was kind of funny because I caught him in mid-chew. After a while the group kind of broke up after losing interest in foraging and both a Doe and Fawn started to approach me. I was seriously cold by this point, having not moved for a while so I snapped only one or two more pics before heading on.

Fresh Snow for Thanksgiving

My work was scheduled to close early today for Thanksgiving weekend so I was looking forward to a mid-week instead of my normal weekend only treks. There was also a winter weather advisory for the afternoon that local meteorologist have been hyping up for days now. It was pretty much in full swing by the time I arrived at the park with more sticky snow clinging to everything. In spots it made the woods look more dense and vast than it really is. There were plenty of deer moving around and I spotted another nine or ten today. I noticed this group walking single file just past the baseball fields on the west side. They were was only one opening in the woods where I could get a photo so I focused on that and waited for each one to come though one by one. To my surprise the second or third was a Buck with a small six point rack. Upon seeing me he sped up ahead to the front of the group and I lost him. The snow was really coming down by now making photographs quite challenging. Of course wouldn't you know that I'd see a bunch more deer in close range. I had about 30 more good photo opportunities and they all came out bad with my lens getting wet and my camera trying to focus on the snowflakes in the air. I guess time got away from me with all of the deer watching I was doing and found it getting dark in a hurry. On the south side I stopped briefly for a pic of the creek with three distinct layers of snow, ice and water.

Drizzily November Afternoon

It's a lot easier to spot both birds and deer now with no leaves and white backdrop of snow. Through the winter there will be a lot less variety of birds so anything other than a Chickadee is exciting. This male Red-bellied Woodpecker was right out in the open, though quite far away. I only got a photo from the back before he flew off. I'm still seeing lots of deer and counted ten in this visit. They seem to sticking in larger groups now of four or more, another reason they're easy to spot lately. These three were part of a group of six I think just before the foot bridge on the north side. With just how close I've been able to get to deer lately, I walked towards this group thinking they'd stay put but to the contrary they were a lot more skittish and bolted off into the woods. The large group of Carp I'd seen yesterday were still in the same general spot, only most of the thin ice had melted due to some drizzle in the air. I walked up to the edge of the creek and could periodically see the water churn in places where groups of them would get excited or whatever. When they did this near the edge, it would actually lift up the thin layers of ice making an unusually weird creaking sound.

Even Closer Still!

Either cold temps have come a little early or maybe it's just been a long time but 15º this morning felt darn cold! All the water in the park, including Shingle Creek had a thin layer of transparent ice. As I crossed the bridge on the north side I looked down to notice hundreds of Carp huddled in a big mass just underneath the ice. This photo was just a small section of the group that had to be about 30 feet long by 10 feet wide. After last week I would have never thought I'd get any closer to a Deer in the park but I was wrong! In roughly the same place but on the other side of the trail were a Doe and two Fawns. One of the Fawns stayed further back as the other two slowly made their way closer to me as they searched under the snow for food. Again I knelt down on one knee holding motionless other than the occasional raising of my camera. This time it was the Fawn who took interest and in an extremely deliberate way, trotted right up to me. It stopped only five feet from me! I was dumbfounded and slowly reached out my hand thinking it might just come up and smell my glove. Just as quickly, it decided it was no longer interested in me and moved on to munching on some green grass just a few feet away. At this distance I really should have gotten better pictures but unfortunately I was aiming directly into the sunlight. There are at least two groups of Does and Fawns in the park but it seems logical that this was the same group who's Doe approached me last weekend.

First Snow and Unbelievably Close Doe

Yesterday we finally saw our very first snow of the season. Up until now there hasn't been even a single flurry of snow in the air. This year there was no mistaking that winter weather had arrived as wet, sticky snow came down hard carried by 30mph winds. It stuck onto everything vertical including tree tops which soon toppled under several inches of very heavy snow. The park sure looked different from my last visit, two weeks to the day. There were plenty of downed trees, including this one that had fallen right into the creek on the north side. Even the paved path was a hard trek through half-melted, half-frozen, sloppy slush. It was a brutal reminder of how hard it can become just to circle the park in winter time. The silver lining though is that there are fewer people and more opportunity to see wildlife. This proved true just minutes after crossing the bridge when I spotted a couple of deer near the northern most tip of the park. The further one was obviously a fawn but the closer one was hard to tell. As I stopped to take pictures, the (doe?) closer to me became seriously curious and walked slowly straight towards me. I found myself having to pull my zoom back further and further just to get her in the picture. I knelt down on one knee to seem smaller and less of a threat as she continued coming closer. I sat there in amazement as she walked RIGHT up to me. I seriously thought she might have even touched my outstretched hand had I had some food. She easily came within ten feet of me! I was just shocked but remained still and let her check me out. I managed to raise my camera for some photos without spooking her. I was lucky that nobody else came down the trail as she would have taken off for sure.

Frosty Morning

I was able to start off the month of November with an early morning walk. It's been noticeably cooler in the mornings but the weather has really been holding out this fall. It's still sunny and way above average temperature wise. In fact this morning was the first time I really noticed frost on the ground. It coated the green ball fields and kind of made the grass seem like rigid artificial turf. I did see a few deer here and there but nothing real close. This couple was waiting to cross the paved path in front of me. I don't think either were fawns I've seen recently as they looked a bit older. During most of my walk I could hear squawking Seagulls and upon rounding the east side I could see a bunch of them on the water. Though they're certainly not uncommon, I realized that I've only seen them in the park for very short times -somewhere between fall and winter. My field guide says they are a Ring-billed Gull. Maybe their presence is signaling the end of this extended fall season.