The first snow came to the lake late this year, falling right on Thanksgiving day. It played havoc with travel north of Concord, but it sure made for a beautiful Thanksgiving Day in the Lakes Region. The morning started with a Barred Owl giving thanks for a good population of little rodents this year.
I only noticed it when it glided down through the air, a flash of brown against a white background. I lost it when it blended into the shrubs on the ground, but waited for it to take flight again. The sortie was apparently was fruitless, so it found a new perch to watch and wait, and from its observation post it clearly detected my motion as it stared right at me for the picture above. After a short stint it decided it wasn't a promising hunting spot and flew to a different post a few dozen yards away.
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| On the move. |
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| Settled onto a new perch, but still watching me! |
I don't know how long it sat there.
Other avian visitors this week included more migrating ducks: common mergansers, hooded mergansers, and a large flock of mallards.
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| Five ducks, almost in a row. Hooded Mergansers. |
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| Mallards - over a dozen in this flock. |
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| A lone female Common Merganser on a quiet Thanksgiving morning. |
The first snow always gets me excited to go right out and see who's been sneaking around the lake without anyone knowing. Thursday night's tracks revealed several deer, a fox, and a mink - probably the same one I saw last week.
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| A deer print, and below, its track along the trail. |
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| A nice fox print in wet snow. |
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| And mink tracks, which I wouldn't have noticed weren't for the calling card it left me. |
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| Mink scat - small and twisted. |
I'll end with one more picture of our first snow, and a couple from the day after, which is often the prettiest day of a winter event.
Here's to many more winter scenes as the new season begins - December first is the first day of meteorological winter!
