Only two days now until Christmas and there is hardly a trace of snow on the ground. The temperature was mild at 26º and with an overcast gray sky this morning. As I was rounding the baseball diamonds on the west side I spotted a whole bunch of Deer just inside the trail loop. I think there were maybe 5 or 6 of them milling about under the dead swamp trees. They were curious of me but moved closer together as I took photos.
Unlike other times they decided in an instant to "high-tail" it away from me. I wonder if they'd become attuned to the fact that there's been hunters in the park since October and they're becoming less trusting of people. I don't know but they sure were unusually skittish. Parts of Shingle Creek were melting again due the warmer temps and the Robins are taking full advantage of the open water for drinking and bathing.
The creek and the lake are about the only place where you can find any real indication of snow -which is only just a dusting coating the frozen parts of the water. On my way around the north end, I ran into a fellow birder and we chatted about what we'd been seeing lately. As we talked he noticed an odd looking "leaf" about 10 feet away and at eye-level. To our surprise it was a dead Deer Mouse! Our thoughts both turned to pondering if it was placed there by a Northern Shrike.
Shrikes are apparently infamous for storing "caches" of food -rodents or birds- between crooks of trees -or even impaling them upon thorns or barbed wire fences. I've never come across that before but my first instinct is that they would be stored higher up in a tree than this. I later told another friend about the finding and he concluded the most obvious explanation would be a Shrike, despite the low height.
Unlike other times they decided in an instant to "high-tail" it away from me. I wonder if they'd become attuned to the fact that there's been hunters in the park since October and they're becoming less trusting of people. I don't know but they sure were unusually skittish. Parts of Shingle Creek were melting again due the warmer temps and the Robins are taking full advantage of the open water for drinking and bathing. 
The creek and the lake are about the only place where you can find any real indication of snow -which is only just a dusting coating the frozen parts of the water. On my way around the north end, I ran into a fellow birder and we chatted about what we'd been seeing lately. As we talked he noticed an odd looking "leaf" about 10 feet away and at eye-level. To our surprise it was a dead Deer Mouse! Our thoughts both turned to pondering if it was placed there by a Northern Shrike. 
Shrikes are apparently infamous for storing "caches" of food -rodents or birds- between crooks of trees -or even impaling them upon thorns or barbed wire fences. I've never come across that before but my first instinct is that they would be stored higher up in a tree than this. I later told another friend about the finding and he concluded the most obvious explanation would be a Shrike, despite the low height.
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