Well, I didn't think the trails could get any worse but I guess I was wrong. After receiving close to a half an inch of rain with temps near or below freezing, I would have had better luck on skates today. Not only where the paved trails worse, but the wood chip trails were now equally as challenging. At least yesterday I could walk on top of the frozen snow with some success. Today, wherever you planted your foot, it wouldn't stay there. My feet would shift 3-4 inches to either side, or "bam" they would plunge 6-8 inches downwards through the snow that was now as soft as it had fallen this morning. As I foolishly "danced" my way up the icy trail I neared Shingle Creek and a loud noise startled me.
A huge flock of ducks spooked and flapped noisily further down the creek. I thought it was weird as there was no way they could have seen me yet. Just a few feet from the bridge, I realized what most likely had spooked them.
A huge ten-point Buck was standing there right in front of me, high up on on the bank of the creek. I couldn't believe it, this was the kind of photo I'd been trying to get ever since first taking my camera with me on walks here years ago. Among the hundreds of deer I've seen here at Palmer Lake, very few are Bucks and even fewer are mature Bucks like this one.
I snapped as many pics as I could before he finally got nervous enough and bounced off into the woods. He stayed there motionless for quite a while and a few other people walked right by me and him on the trail not even knowing he was there. He was so motionless that I even lost sight of him a couple times though I knew right were he was. After all was still again, he walked out into the open one last time before spotting me again and took off full steam across the trail and then across an open field.
One thing for sure I've come to learn about Bucks is that they are FAR more cautious and untrusting of humans than their female counterpart. On the south side, Shingle Creek is actually opening up completely now, having it's icy coating melted from both the bottom and the top. This photo on the bottom is from yesterday and the one on top from today.
After the warm temps melted a fair amount of snow and ice, it's turned cold again with evenings dipping slightly below zero. There's barely any open water now compared to just last week. Saw a group of 6 or 7 deer on the west side but they were too far back in the woods for a photo. Since I highly doubted I'd see any more deer after that I figured I'd try some bird shots. Birds are so much tougher as they don't sit still for long. Some, like this Chickadee are gone a half a second after you snap the shutter. 
Shortly later I ran into two guys at the bridge. One guy had some nice camera equipment and the other was holding a large deer antler. I stopped to talk to them and they said they had found the shed antler out in the woods while photographing birds. It was in near perfect shape. As I counted the 5 tines on the antler, I wondered if it was from the 10pt Buck I saw just last week. I still had the pics on my camera and I showed them as we speculated as to whether or not it may have belonged to the same deer. They also had a nice photo of a Great Horned Owl which spurred a good conversation about the various birds we'd all seen in the park.
Birds seemed to be the theme of the day, though I also saw a few squirrels and rabbits out enjoying the sun. 
