My brown-eyed, furry friends must have known that I was at home today.  As I sat at the kitchen table, enjoying a morning coffee, all five of them paraded into the yard and put on a show for me.  I noticed that the younger ones are now tall enough to reach the hanging feeders.

Their antics were funnier than usual.  Three of them chose the feeder closest to the kitchen window.  As they tipped it sideways for the seeds to fall out, the feeder rotated around in a circle.  Their heads rotated round and round with the feeder.  It was making me dizzy just watching them.

When they left, I bundled up and headed to Elk Island for a hike and some fresh air.  I was the only person in the Astotin Lake parking lot.  It was snowing lightly and the wind was drifting the snow across the surface of the lake.

I hiked to the trail head and found the remains of a young deer.  There wasn't much left of it as the scavengers had been busy.  Ravens and magpies were in the tree tops.  There were a number of coyote tracks in the fresh snow.

It appeared that there were no humans on the trail for a number of days.  A layer of snow covered the trail.  There were no people prints; only elk, coyote, hare, deer and squirrel.  

As I made my way around the loop, the sky cleared and the sun came out.  I hadn't seen blue sky for a few days.  The wind stopped and it actually felt warm.

I was hoping for an owl sighting today but that didn't happen.  The largest bird that I saw was a raven.

It was great to get out for a hike today.  The temperature had warmed up to make for an enjoyable outing.  I took the long way home.  There were two white tail deer along the north boundary of the park.  A couple of coyotes were hunting in the open fields.

I pulled into the yard and noticed that the deer had come back while I was gone.  The chickadees were lined up on the fence waiting for me to refill their seed supply.  There was a feeding frenzy when I finished.

I'm looking forward to another outside day tomorrow.  I don't care how cold it will be.  There is one thing for sure; I'll be spending time outside.