The morning began on a musical note.  I opened the back door and heard 'cheeseburger, cheeseburger' coming from the tree next door.  What a great way to begin the day.  That is my kind of tweeting.  The black capped chickadees provided the Twitter!

There is going to be a very disappointed squirrel in my yard.  I took down the wreath that was hanging on the garage.  As I lifted it down, mushrooms began falling to the ground.  On closer inspection, a squirrel used the hollow places between the boughs as hiding places for a winter cache.  I had a good laugh envisioning how it accomplished that feat as the wreath was not close to anything that the squirrel could have climbed up on and the mushrooms were placed between the wreath and the exterior wall.  What an ingenious little creature.

I threw my snowshoes, skates and skis into my vehicle this morning with the hope to spend the entire day outside.  I drove to Elk Island National Park as the sun was coming up.  It was foggy last night and the hoar frost covered the branches with a thick coat.

There was nobody else in the parking lot at the Amisk Wuche Trail.  A lone fox yipped in the trees to the east.  A squirrel answered back.  I was going to stay on the trail and it was packed down so didn't bother with the snowshoes.  

The landscape was frosty and quiet which was like music to my ears.  Snow crunched beneath my boots and now and again I heard the blue jays squawking in the trees.

There is a section of the trail that has towering evergreens on either side of it.  I love that area.  As I walked through it I could smell the spruce sap.  What a wonderful aromatherapy session it was!

I had a close encounter with a pileated woodpecker.  Its call echoed through the trees and I tried to determine where the bird was.  As I walked, I was glancing up to the tree tops.  I noticed some movement off to the side and realized that the bird was not in the trees.  It was working on a rotted log not four feet away from me.  We had a staring contest.  It would peck for a bit and then glance over the log to see if I was still there.  I watched it for about five minutes before a squirrel came by and shooed the woodpecker away.

The birds were active today.  In addition to the blue jays and the pileated woodpecker, I heard the chickadees and saw a grouse fly up from the forest floor.  I loved listening to the forest choir.

My next stop was going to be the Cooking Lake - Blackfoot Recreation Area for some x-country skiing.  On my way there, it began to rain.  I pulled into the parking lot and had to have my wipers on to keep the windshield clear.  Unfortunately I did not have a raingear with me.  Who would have thought that a raincoat would be a requirement for skiing on January 16?  I turned my vehicle around and headed home.  I brought skis and ski boots with me, not galoshes and an umbrella.