mamestraconfigurata 的日誌

Busy couple of weeks - father had a broken hip, back home now.

It's been cold and snowy the past couple of weeks. Two major snowfalls, and now -25 to -30. Winnipeg does not get much snow compared to some places in Canada, but what we get does not melt (usually). So it builds up. River is frozen now, I've walked on it a bit. Heard what sounded like waxwings today, but did not see them. They were likely across the street, in some sort of domestic fruit tree. Just the usual suspects around - chickadees, nuthatches, and house sparrows. The cold seems to drive them somewhere - not sure where they go.

It's been cold for weeks now. Today -32C, wind. Haven't seen (or heard) much evidence of animal life, though I did see what looked like squirrel tracks coming off a tree down at the Red. I suspect they are new since we had a blizzard yesterday, and much of the path I was on had been partly filled in. Older tracks would not be seen. I don't know where the birds and smaller mammals go during this cold. Some of the mammals semi-hibernate, but the winter birds stick around. They would need to eat to maintain their heat. Maybe it's more efficient to hunker down for a day or two than to try to forage for food. They must have some fat stores...

Yesterday was still cold, but only around -23C. Got over to Parker, and saw/heard some signs of life. Heard at least one nuthatch, and at least one chickadee. Also saw some mouse tracks that looked fairly fresh.

Today it is supposed to warm up to -5C or so. Went to the Red river, and saw evidence of rodent activity, and heard a bird or two. It's hard to discern some tracks - dogs and deer moving through deep snow leave similar types of tracks. There may have been some deer tracks in the bush along the river, but I don't know for sure. There are certainly deer around. A couple of years ago, in mid-winter, saw some deer running along the far bank of the river (200m?). My dog saw them too, and I was afraid he would chase them, but he didn't. The closest we got to a deer was at Parker, when there was one in a wetland meadow. He saw it, and kind of chased it, but when it ran into the main bush he just stopped and watched it.

Warming up today - probably -8 when I went out this morning. Saw a Blue Jay in the tree across the way, and heard a raven croaking before dawn. While down at the river, a few chickadees and nuthatches out and about. It still amazes me how they survive the cold.

My persistence paid off today, with some luck. At the Parker dog park I noticed a bunch of crows in a tree, yelling. I decided to go to it, as I thought they might be mobbing an owl. After wending my way through willow bush, I go just to where the path opened to that tree, and everything took off to another part of the bush. Slogged my way back out to the fields, and about half way back to the car, the whole lot came flying past. There was definitely an owl being chased by the crows - don't know what type of owl but bigger than a crow. It was slightly too far away to make out details of the owl. Second time I've seen that event there. First was a couple of years ago, when the yapping crows guided me to where they were mobbing an owl.

It's been warm here over the past week or so . 1 to 5 C. The melting snow runs down onto the river. It won't melt the ice, but it pools on the top, making it hard to get around on it. Saw some deer tracks yesterday, along the river path. The deer must have walked along the path in the soft snow/ice, and left a trail of footprints. Deer are fairly common along the Red, although it is rare to actually see them. It's quite interesting.