We had our first good snowfall just last night - about 7 inches worth, and instantly the world has been transformed into the North Pole, just in time for Christmas.
Two days before, the woods looked like this:
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| Mid December and not a flake on the ground. |
And though I'm happy we finally have some snow, it sure would have been nice if we were able to skate before the skies dumped and covered up all that beautiful ice.
Care must be excercised when traveling out on the ice in the next few weeks as the snow will hide the many open spots and will slow the thickening of the ice that exists. Be careful out there.
Before the snow fell I saw my first sign this season of River Otter out and about.
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| Otter scat left by the shore. |
These sneaky mammals can swim long distances under the ice, popping up through small openings near shore to catch a breath and relieve themselves. Otter scat is reliably identifed by the fish scales in it - it's the only scat I know of that shows this.
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| Intact fish scales are usually present in otter scat. |
It also is a loose, moist scat, rather messy, and always near water. Though otters dine predominately on fish, they also eat crayfish and frogs and other amphibians. They are reported to have excellent fishing skills, and that's one theory why they are such playful animals: they fill their bellies quickly and then have lots of time to play. I rarely see the animals themselves, but now that there's snow on the ground I'll be on the lookout for otter rolls and belly-slides down the slopes onto the lake.
Finally, I'll share this tree top from a very tired white pine for you to use your imagination as what it looks like:
Nature spurs a lot of creativity! And a lot of beauty.
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