"Out & About" Photo Blog: 2nd Marsh -- February 16th, 2012

A dreary day. Go to the marsh? It'd been a while. A quick check of the weather forecast said tomorrow will be sunny. Maybe tomorrow would be better... get some blue skies in the shots. Just go for my exercise walk on the path instead? But I didn't feel like the walk today, so the marsh beckoned... do my walking there.

Am I ever glad I chose the marsh. Deer! I saw deer! 6 or 7 of them! It doesn't get much better than that for me at the marsh. As our 2 year old grandson would say, "Wooow!"

Before I even got to my usual parking spot I saw a flock of about 40 Robins on Colonel Sam Drive, across the road from the marsh. There had been two earlier reports of 360 and 75 Robins at the marsh so I'm guessing that it's probably the same huge flock that is slowly breaking up.

Humans get the "February blues", nature gets the "February browns"... at least in our neck of the woods. Still, with the various shades, they have a beauty of their own, and with no snow they stand out more than ever.

In all my visits to the marsh I don't think I've ever had so many Chickadees come begging for seeds. It was a constant stream today.

Which one should I pick?

There's two left... one for each of us. Who's going first?

What's left of a Birch log... the colors caught my eye.

Moss isn't the only green in the marsh now, but it's the most brilliant shade of green to be seen, so it grabs your attention.

An interesting ice puddle pattern...

I'm a little surprised how much fungi is still around.

What will soon be a vernal pool. I like the way they stretch off into the back woods.

It always amazes me how Woodpeckers can rip apart a healthy looking tree.

A Nuthatch... and it's usual upside-down view of the world.

I thought the moss makes for a nice border.

I get a kick out of squirrels. As you get closer, they play peek-a-boo for a bit, then they slip around the back of the tree out of sight.

I blew out the cap to get the detail of the underside.

Beavers have been hard at work, very recently judging by the freshness of the cuts. Their lodge must be in need of repair.

Black Knot, common on certain shrubs, is ugly looking stuff. If you're curious to learn more about it, here's a link...
http://www.gov.mb.ca/agriculture/crops/diseases/fac48s00.html

As time goes by, some trees fall down, others need to be cut down for our safety. The number of downed trees (or cut-up pieces of them) that we see in nature areas everywhere is a reminder that everything has it's time on stage.

The third of the trio. You can usually count on seeing Chickadees, Nuthatches & Downy Woodpeckers at some point along the boardwalk.

I was about to see what was easily the highlight of my day. Ever since I saw my first deer in the marsh I'm always on the lookout for them. I saw a vole skitter across the boardwalk earlier and thought... I guess that's my animal for the day.

Then, almost back at the car, when I figured the day was done, I saw 6 or 7 bright flashes of white bounding off into the woods. If I had been more attentive, I'm pretty sure I would have been able to get a shot of them all, since when I saw them leaving they were less than 100 yards away. They must have been only 50 or 60 yards in front of me at first.

By the time I had my camera up to my eye, they'd vanished... or so I thought at first. It turned out that two of them only went 50 yards or so and stopped to browse, keeping their eyes & ears turned my way.

It was late in the day and the light was poor so I had to use manual focus with the lens I was using. Even in good light I would probably have needed to use manual focus, with all the branches in the way. The results aren't very good but at least I got something.

Since males don't start growing antlers for another month or so, I assume this small herd was a mix of bucks & does.

Sniffing the wind and listening...

They saw, smelled, heard something. It turned out it was some idiot with a pair of hounds. He didn't even have them on a leash. He obviously ignored the signs that say dogs aren't allowed. Jerk.

They quickly left. I was surprised how large the combined white patch on their rumps and tail is... it seemed huge. I don't remember it being as large with other Whitetails I've seen, but I guess it probably was.

Terrible results but a good view of the white tails & rumps.