DISPATCH FROM PETRIE #144, JANUARY 2024
After the snow and rain of a few days ago I expected the river to be up a bit, but I found the Bill Holland Trail impassable with open, flowing water. I checked the River levels website and discovered it was some three plus feet over the normal summer levels.
The other trails were covered with fresh ice so not much walking was possible around the Island today.
There were tracks in the snow that showed other animals were out and about.
Red squirrel
The wild turkey tracks were pointing the way….
Someone with a tail dragging in the snow had passed by.
These were identified later as muskrat tracks. I’m surprised a muskrat was out at this time of year.
A few tracks were not identifiable
I thought at first I had some deer tracks, but on closer inspection, I think it is someone with a boot with a heel which leaves a deer-like print behind.
(Those are turkey tracks going vertically in the photo)
There were a few birds….
A raven, a nuthatch, a chickadee, a female hairy woodpecker and a cardinal
Plus a red squirrel horning in on the birds’ seeds
A last year’s robin nest was exposed to the elements
What I thought might be a tangled baltimore oriole nest turned out to be strands of ribbon/paper…
The buckthorn berries are awaiting the birds looking for last-resort food.
There is still lots of grass showing above the layer of snow
The main channel of the river was ice covered for the most part, with large shards of ice piled up by the current and winds
The ice-fishing huts are still “in port”, but there was some fishing going on
With the bright sun, the cabins were glowing brightly
