Having some time available, I decided to follow up on my Walk in the Woods from January. I wasn't expecting much new, which proved to be true until towards the end of the walk
The snow scarves were still hanging on tree branches
Some of the asters were still standing tall in the deep snow
I had been through a not-too-dense-thank-you thicket of thorns before. This time I found out what they were - prickly ash.
That only encouraged me to avoid them in the future.
The snow had melted a bit atop the stumps, but not so on the logs of a fallen tree trunk
A yellow-bellied sapsucker had certainly left its calling card signature of small holes ringing a tree trunk.
The sapsucker is a woodpecker that laps up the resultant leaking sap and any trapped insects with its specialized, brush-tipped tongue
They must have been "favouring" this tree for many years before it broke in half during a windstorm.
An "old" favourite dead tree looked like it might have had some fresh peckering by pileated woodpeckers. There is not much left of this old birch tree, the bark has delaminated on the backside
I must stop taking photos of beech trees in winter, but they constantly demand my attention - small and smaller. Their buds are awaiting spring.
A good number of deer tracks as usual, and as usual no deer to be seen.
Some of the deer ventured into the deep snow, while others walked along the trail
Some of the deer seemed to be of the larger variety but I suspect it was just the effects of snow over time
A few squirrel tracks were hopping between trees
A pair of hairy woodpeckers were hammering in the near distance
Having been toppled by wind a number of years ago, two trees, one very large, one smaller, lie snow covered on the side of a hill
There were some signs of warming weather. icicles on the edge of snow covering a fallen branch. And small open water patches in marshy areas
Unidentified footprints could be seen coming (to drink?) at some open spots
While other patches of water had dirty footprints coming in and out of the water. In some areas the unidentified (raccoon?) animal seemed to be going through the water.
In an area of forest I had not been into before, I spotted what seemed to be a den under a relatively fresh cut log
A slightly wider look showed another entrance, and the results of a fierce altercation at the doorway of the second.
Some blood (not shown) and hair tufts indicated that there might have been at least one raccoon involved
