Pre-arctic Blast

This Saturday I got to the park around 9am with a friend of mine who also wanted to get outside before predicted shift in weather hits. We are due for a blast of arctic air coming down from the north that is supposed make our temps plummet into the single digits or below. To our surprise, Waldo the Wood Duck was still hanging out with the other Mallards on the south west side. In fact he was sitting up on the snow bank by himself. I wonder how he'll fare when the temps drop. A short time later as we were walking up the west side of the park we could see some other hikers looking and pointing towards the middle. We then noticed some movement and spotted at least 5 or more Deer. Others appeared quickly and before our eyes more and more began to group underneath a thick patch of Buckthorn trees. It was hard to count them all but we think there were around 15 or so. This is the largest group of Deer I've seen in quite a while and we wondered if they were "herding" in regards to the pending shift in weather. The group worked it's way southward and eventually into the cattails. We didn't see a whole lot else save for one Red-bellied Woodpecker near the end of our hike.