It's snowing again

... and the snow keeps  on coming.

Today it was snowing so much and so fast, that they actually could not keep up with cleaning it away from the parking lot. If you don't have to drive it is a beautiful spectacle but if you do it is kind of challenging...

Box cat

Sorting out stuff alsways is fun for Pepper. 

He loves boxes and just HAS to climb in any one of them.

When visiting Syktyvkar, Russia  a few years back, I really liked the color of a particular group of old houses. The trees lining the small road also added to its charm and I just had to try painting it.

Photowalk

Today's walk was very enjoyable and much more of a success with regard to number and variation of birds seen.

First sight of the day were a few turkeys on a field, picking around on some hay stacks. In the past few years they started to pop up everywhere in the neighbourhood.

When I was on my way to check my first destination, the feeder station at Shirley Bay, I all of the sudden noticed something large on a tree next to the road. I immediately swerved to the right and got out my camera. Indeed, it was a bird of pray, keeping an eye on the road for some tasty treat. I am not 100% sure but I think it might be a red-tailed hawk. He watched me, as I got out of the car and pointed the camera lens towards him. He did not feel comfortable with the attention and took off.

I had the urge to follow him and try to get some more pictures since he just moved a bit down the road but in the end I decided to let him be and continued on my way in the opposite direction.

The feeder station was bustling with people again and I did not feel like mingling. So I continued to my next destination. Mud Lake.

It was a beautiful day for a walk at Mud Lake. The temperature was actually not bad for a walk, around -15C, and thanks to the sunshine and the lack of wind my face was not getting frosty at all.

I met way more birds than yesterday, including:

a very curios chickadee,

an a little bit more shyer white bellied nuthatch,

quite a number of black and grey squirrels,

and last but not least, one porcupine munching on some tender branches.

Photowalk

Yesterday I took a quick photo trip in order to look for some owls. For some reason it seems to me, that everybody else just goes out for a stroll and immediately finds one of those elusive creatures. Not me. In the past 10 years I saw 2 owls close up and did not get a proper photo of either one of those. I assume, that I passed by gazillion of small, medium and large owls without noticing them while walking through the forest.

Well, yesterday, as usual, I did not find owls but stumbled over a couple of ruffed grouse in trees. They look so cute!

Unfortunately the sun was already pretty low and I only got a few pics at ISO 800 and without details of their faces and feathers.

So today, I tried again to get a better picture but unfortunately it was not meant to be. Maybe next time. :)
There were also a whole lot of other photographers in the area so I better try that again during the week when it's a bit more empty.

It was -15C with a windchill of -27C and it seemed as all the birds found some hiding places to keep warm.

This cutie probably was wondering what on earth I was doing in the forest in this weather... it was strolling along while I made my way back to the carpark.

Actually amazing that these little lichens can survive such a tough climate. I mean, I was dressed up with double and tripple layers of warm clothing and still had a red nose like Rudolf and fingers in thick gloves that started to loose their sensitivity and these look as fresh as during the warm days of spring.

So even though heading out looking for ruffed grouse and ending up with a picture of a deer instead,  I still very much enjoyed the fresh (really fresh today!) air and the quick stroll through the forest.