winter weather

With a big dump of snow in Muskoka (30 cm = nearly a foot) of snow, the cats are reluctant to even trod on the deck. The birds flit back and forth from tree to feeder. Hungry and trying to keep warm. We have nuthatches, chickadees, blue jays, lots of woodpeckers. The mysterious pileated woodpecker I spotted one morning. Fearless, it ignores this lowly human in its quest fo food. It bashes its brains out searching for bugs in our old pine tree.


The mergansers continue to fish. I feel so cold watching them dive. Occasionally they pop up with a sunfish in their beaks.

The dozen or so ducks visit. They will sit on the rock, ankle (do they have ankles?) deep in water.

As I drive the roads, I can see through bare trees to lakes previously hidden from view. The smaller lakes, and wee bays are covered in a thin layer of ice, topped with snow. The lake water temperature remains at a constant 4 degrees Celsius. This is why the lake freezes and thaws as the wind whips up and shatters the ice on most days. Eventually, however, it will freeze over. The nights have been increasingly colder, down to double-digits, again. I think we have had lake effect snow for 2 - 3 weeks on a daily basis!