I did a brief Facetime with Caitlin. No phone, you know. We're about to buy a new cell phone plan, I bounced some ideas off of her. (Josee and Papa were off downhill skiing.) Grampa hustled into town to get some groceries before the stores got busy and the snow had accumulated.
It was World Wetland Day: Saturday, Feb. 2nd. The wetland is pretty unfriendly right now! It's so pretty, and full of life, in summer. I can dream.
Knowing rain was on the way, I thought it best to get out on the land before conditions deteriorated. It was heavy going. There was a blizzard. I took my GPS, whose maps are out of date. It was a good trek: nearly an hour and a km. The bottom left squiggles are where I shoveled the sidewalk. The bottom right detour was where I went back for the trailcam SD card,
I fell once. Snowy head to toe. It was a soft landing... I met the turkeys on the return leg.
They were on trailcam #2. Me, too!
Here we go. They aren't too exciting, these photos, but it was quiet, the odd chickadee flew up into the trees. The critter tracks were major grooves in the snow, as they save energy using the same path.
Can you see the turkeys? I meet them all the time. I saw one fly away from me, and it smucked itself into a branch, the noise of their big wings swishing. I felt badly for it!
Monday
I was out snowshoeing, again, Monday. It was awful. I spotted some blood on the trail, which means a deer might have shed an antler. I hauled myself back up to the garage and put the snowshoes on.
Alas, nothing. A difficult walk, but good exercise. The top crunchy layer must be awful for the critters. It was an awful walk around the wetland. The top layer of frozen rain on the snow led to an ice crust, on top of knee-deep snow. The poor turkeys are up to their chests. The deer wander through knee-deep snow with a horrid crust.
We were really wise NOT to do the driveway. The back deck shows where I shoveled, and where the ice rain stuck. The crust makes it difficult walking.
This morning, Tuesday, we had rain overnight. I hope snowshoe season isn't over.
6 comments:
Argh! The rain has made the pretty white snow look dirty. I really dislike this.
I read up on wild turkeys standing on one leg yesterday, they conserve heat that way.
We got some of the rain overnight, but it hasn't put too much of a dent in the snowpack.
The combinations of rain, snow , cols warm makes for some brutal weather.
I hope it keeps warming up mostly for all the critters your way. Here it did warm up quite a bit, today in Nashville it was 21 C but it won’t last.
One foot after the other, and trundle off home again. Bundle up with lots of warm clothes,and those snow shoes, they look wonderful.
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