Winter Evening and the end of January

All day I'd been running errands and before I knew it, daylight was running out. I made a last minute decision to get one last walk in this January. I arrived at the park about 5:15pm which was technically after sunset already. I decided to go counter-clockwise, knowing that I'd go through the darkest parts of the woods earlier than if I went the other way. I did see a whole bunch of Deer on the north side by the bird feeders but it was much too dark for a photo. In fact, there was only place in the park where my camera picked up any light -near the skating rink on the southwest side. So basically this entry is only to prove that I braved the cold (and dark) one more time this month.

Making my own path

I've been in a bit of a slump lately in getting outside. Probably due to our low temps lately. So this Saturday I was eager to get some park time in -and indeed I did. I spent a total of 4 hours at the park and never once used the trails! With snowshoes I was able to make my way around the inner part of the park and took some quite unusual routes through places you'd never be able to get to in other seasons. Not too long after heading west I noticed an uncommon shape and movement toward the center of the park. It was a Coyote! As I watched him through my binoculars I thought he might have been injured as he appeared to drag his hind legs behind him. However, I think that he was simply falling through the deep snow and pulling his hind end up and out with every step. Later I made my way to the middle and found his fresh tracks. It's unbelievably hard to get close to Coyotes at the park so I've been kind of obsessed with them lately. There was very little wildlife out today though I did spot lots and lots of signs. Almost everywhere were Vole tracks in the snow. You could see exactly where they popped out from a thicket of Cattails or even just a straight hole in the snow. The tiny footprints would sometimes go for hundreds of feet, but twice I saw evidence of capture by an Owl or Hawk. It was pretty obvious because you could exactly where the bird landed and pressed it's wings and tail feathers into the snow, and leaving just a trace of blood and sometimes lots of fur. I enhanced the contrast of this photo so you can see what I saw. Otherwise the photo just looks like plain white snow. With the lack of activity today I settled for less animate objects such as these Shelf Mushrooms. I've never seen so many growing on one log before -and this was just a small section of them.

Brrrr!

The temp when I woke up this morning was -11º so I decided to wait a while before heading to the park. Eventually it warmed up enough for a walk. When I arrived at the park it was 6º above zero and little did I know that this would be the high temp for the day! With these temps, the Ducks just barely had enough open water to fit on. I was happy to spot the white one again as I'd not seen him with the others in quite a while. As I rounded the southwest corner and headed north, there was nothing blocking the wind as I walked passed the ball fields. Going against the wind, my eye sockets actually began to hurt. I pulled and tightened my new winter face-hood until I could barely see anymore. I was expecting to see some Deer or Pheasants today but on the contrary it was quite an event just to see anything moving at all. The snow under my feat made an awful, loud squeaking sound in these temps so that was not helping either. Somewhere on the north side I paused for a few pics of this Downy Woodpecker who stayed relatively still despite my distance. For a while he just sat there motionless -making me think he was truly frozen. The only other thing I saw moving today was this Grey Squirrel on the south side. I first noticed him near a large hollow opening on one of the tall Cottonwoods trees by the Creek. It looked like maybe he'd just crawled out of there and was trying to soak up some some and warm up a bit. But on a day like today you can't even feel the warmth of the sunshine.

Dreary Day in January

I had an extra day off from work today this Monday and got in a visit around 2:00 pm. It was already gloomy and overcast but with temps nearing 28º there was almost a "haziness" to the air today. After crossing the foot bridge on the north side, I spotted some movement in the woods to my left and saw three deer headed the opposite way. I turned around to get ahead of them, then stopped and knelt down on the trail where I figured they'd come out. Indeed a trio of Doe and two fawns popped out of the woods right in front of me. Someone has been leaving out apples near the trail this whole winter and the Doe stopped to gobble one up quickly. I watched one of the fawns cautiously sniff one, then jump back suddenly as if it smelled something completely out of the norm. Neither of the fawns ate the remaining apples and continued following mom toward the bridge. I couldn't believe it but I watched all 3 cross right over the bridge! I've seen tracks over the bridge before but this was the first time I've actually seen Deer walk right over it. Later I spotted a Bald Eagle and then another Great Horned Owl. Both were very far away and I did not get any worthwhile pictures for this post. Later on, I finally noticed some other birds near the east side including Nuthatches, Starlings, Robins and about 10 Cardinals. The male Cardinals were so bright against the overcast sky but this is the best photo I got. As often as I see Cardinals, I'm still striving for a better photo.

Sunset Snowshoeing

It was nearly 4 o'clock by the time I arrived at the park this Saturday. It was intentional though as I was hoping to spot another Coyote near dusk. Once again I snowshoed across the lake, meandering around through the middle and stopping near the spot of my close Coyote encounter last weekend. After waiting a bit without seeing anything I traveled further north and crossed the creek near the footbridge. I found myself in a few places I'd never ventured before and it was exciting to see a new perspective. I wandered to the east of these large trees and noticed a big Owl up in trees to my right. As I walked closer for a better photo, I noticed a second Owl much closer to me. This one was facing more into the sun and had better light on him so I inched closer and closer as quietly as I could on my loud snowshoes. I watched him for a while and he seemed perfectly content in the sun, periodically closing his large yellow eyes. I started to head back as the sun was really getting low now and possibly increasing my chances of seeing a Coyote. On the way back I paused to snap this picture as the winter sun was creating some interesting color and light against the sky and snow covered ground. Eventually I made it back "my spot" where I actually sat and waited to see a Coyote until I got so cold I could barely move. It was getting seriously dark now -too dark for my camera to catch a decent picture anyway. So I headed back to the parking lot, toes too numb to feel with a bright winter moon rising above me. I think I want to come back again sometime this winter and set out under a full moon. I don't think I'd get any pictures but it would definitely be bright enough to see where you're going.

Another Coyote Sighting

Apparently this is the time of year to see Coyotes at the park. This makes two sightings in two days -an extremely rare occurrence for me, despite my frequent visits. I decided to snowshoe yet again today and cut across the frozen lake and up to the middle of the park. All along the way I was spotting Coyote tracks and taking note of how they walked and where. In most places they were able to stay on top of the deep snow but every now and again, one paw would crash through and drop about a foot or more. I myself was running into the same problems even on snowshoes. Anytime I was near lots of Cattails I would crash right through the snow, sinking up to my knees. The worst part about when this happens is that it's really hard to get out without crashing through again. After trekking through the middle and not seeing any wildlife, I decided to stop and just stand still for a while near a group of wild trees. I stood there until I got bored and turned around to my right to head in another direction. It was right then I spotted a Coyote at fairly close range. He had been walking straight towards me! He spotted me immediately and took a hard right, then took off running. I figured because he was running I'd never get a photo, so I flipped my camera to video instead.

Coyote Sighting First Visit of 2011

I guess I kind of wore myself out last month so today, January 8th was my first visit of 2011. It was the coldest day of the year so far with the morning staring out well below zero, so I waited until after noon for the temps to warm up a bit. Instead of my normal walk around the park I was joined by my wife on a snowshoeing trek. It was a beautifully bright sunny day but we were both cold as we headed up the frozen creek. When we were closest to the middle we cut over and explored some big trees and some groves of Buckthorn. Our snowshoes made an awful racket on top of the crusty snow due to the rain in late December. Thus there was not much wildlife to photograph. After crossing the middle of the park we ran into another guy on snowshoes who said that he saw a Coyote earlier that appeared to have been scared up by us walking up the creek. I was really disappointed that we hadn't noticed it. Eventually we turned around and ended up coming back almost the same way we came in, heading back down the frozen creek. Shortly after pausing to look at a Hawk through my binoculars, I caught a glimpse of something running off to the east. Sure enough it was a Coyote and I tore my camera out of the case just in time to catch a LONG distance shot. I cropped the photo here really far in so you can see him better and notice that both hind legs are off the ground at the same time. After seeing and photographing a Coyote on my very first visit of the year, I can't wait to see what the rest of 2011 will bring!