It's a new year.  I don't make resolutions but will continue to make the effort to spend as much time as possible outside in the fresh air.  I am hoping to take a few more camping trips through the summer.  The snow-free days are a long way off.  I have to deal with snow shovel right now.  

After spending December 31 lazing around the house, I needed some exercise and fresh air.  The day began with shoveling the deck and driveway.  Over the past couple of days, there was another 4 inches of snow that came down.  There are still 3-4 months of winter ahead and I don't know where the rest of the snow is going to go.  The snowbanks in the yard are the biggest that I've had here in 11 years; that is after some melting that took place on +0C days.

The deer had cleaned out all the feeders and their grain tub so before leaving this morning, I refilled everything.

I wanted to start the new year off in the forest so I grabbed my snowshoes and drove to Elk Island National Park.  There were very few vehicles in the trail head parking lots so I knew the day would be quiet; just the way I like it.

I decided on visiting the Amisk Wuche trail.  It provides a variety of scenery and a good work out with all the hill-climbing.  After gearing up and hiking to the fork in the trail that creates the loop, I decided to start the year off as a rebel.  Yes, I hiked in the opposite direction of the arrow that marks the trail.  I've always hiked counter-clockwise but today I changed it up and hiked clockwise for a different perspective.  The trail is actually more scenic in this direction.

The light was dull and grey.  Snowflakes drifted lazily to the ground.  There was not a sound in the forest until I got to the first beaver pond.  The beaver lodge was snow-covered with animal tracks leading to the top of it.  The tracks continued east to the forest edge.  As I stood on the trail taking in the sight, I was entertained by a lone coyote.  Its haunting call echoed through the trees.

Further into the forest where the trees were closer together, a couple of squirrels chattered to each other.  A woodpecker worked to get underneath the bark on an old poplar tree.  Most of the hike around the loop was silent except for the crunching of my snowshoes on the snow.

As I neared the parking lot, three more hardy hikers were heading out and six more were suiting up by their vehicles.  I picked the perfect time to be out there.

On the drive home I saw a couple of coyotes loping across the frozen ponds, stopping now and again to hunt.  There were no other animals out today.

When I pulled into the driveway, I noticed that the deer had visited while I was away.  Before heading inside, I refilled everything.  The birds were very active. I decided to do a short bird count in the backyard.  I tried tracking the birds at all three feeding stations but soon learned that it was impossible to count that many.  

I chose to track the station in the middle of the yard where a block of suet hangs in addition to a feeder filled with striped sunflower seeds.  In eight short minutes there were 55 visits by chickadees, one by a downy woodpecker and two by nuthatches.  It's no wonder they empty the

feeder almost as fast as the deer do.  

A pileated woodpecker flew into the yard but it spied me in the window so it flew out just as fast.  A squirrel was raiding the seeds in the tray feeder.

I was succumbing to the fresh air.  My eyes were closing; telling me that an afternoon nap was in order.  Well, the nap turned into a lovely 2 hour rest.  I glanced out the window to see if the sky had cleared and noticed that the deer had visited again while I was asleep.

The temperature is supposed to warm up overnight.  If that happens, I think tomorrow will be spent on the ski trails.