Winter Comes to the Fish Pond

Well I finally did it. With temperatures rising into the twenties I actually found the motivation to make my first winter trip to the Fish Pond.

While the lack of leaves and covering of snow create a completely new and interesting landscape they make it very hard to sneak into my photo spots. When I arrived there were about thirty ducks swimming around the pond but they saw me coming long before I got to my photo blind. When I got about halfway down the bank they took off en masse. All I saw of them was the white undersides of their flapping wings through the cedar trees that grow on the bank near my main blind.

Of course one good thing about snow in the woods is that you never have to wonder what kind of animals are around.

Everything from the smallest mouse scurrying from hole to hole to the largest deer looking for food leaves its footprints in the snow.

Even though I didn’t see the ponds Muskrat I know they are still around since I found their tracks in a couple of different locations.

I was also happy and quite surprised to see the Kingfishers still about. One male appeared to be hunting near the pond’s inlet stream but after not finding lunch there he flew off in the direction of a neighboring pond. He returned in less than a minute with a second, very noisy, Kingfisher in hot pursuit. Apparently the cold weather does not do much to improve their willingness to share hunting spots.

Since there is a continuos flow of water through the pond I doubt that it will completely freeze over except on the coldest of days. This is great for me as it means that there will probably be quite a bit of wildlife spending time here through the winter and now that I have gone once I will have no excuse for not going again.

Until then, if you want to have some fun, grab a book on animal tracks and get out into the snow! It’s the best time of year to learn just who you neighbors are!

Have a great one!

Kevin