First Big Storm:

We finally have our first big storm of the season. There is lots of snow. We are hunkering down and not going anywhere today. It's great to just watch the snow coming down. The lake has not frozen over yet, with the middle of the lake still being open water.

Is summer over?

We finally have had some nice weather that we can call summer. There is a crispness to the air now that is reminiscent of fall. Some of the leaves are already starting to change. I haven't done much painting this summer but am looking forward to doing a lot more this fall and winter.

Long Weekend

The long weekend finally arrived and there is a rainy start. The previous week has been glorious and has allowed us to go kayaking and sit out on the dock enjoying the sunshine. We have been observing a hooded merganser pair flying around the house and fishing in the water. We finally saw the female trying to get into a hole about 50 feet high in a tree off of our Muskoka room. I actually thought she was stuck there, the hole being pretty small. She managed to get out and has been back many times. I guess this is her nest, so we hope to see the baby mergansers emerging in about four weeks! The blackflies have not been too bad so far!

Finally Spring!!

The ice finally went out on the weekend of April 18th. We now have all kinds of ducks that are migrating through the area. They are a joy to watch as they dive for fish in the lake. A single loon has also been around, but I believe he is just passing through as there was no mate. We have not had any nesting loons on our lake for about 6 years now. This may be due to fluctuating water levels, more boat traffic and possibly because loons have been injured and killed by motor boats on the lake.
A few days ago, we saw a mother bear and two cubs over at my neighbours' house. She was laying down in the grass but when she saw us she sent the cubs up a tree!

Hoping For Spring

We had a terrible wind storm last night which cut the power for about four hours.
I thought that spring was on its way but yesterday it felt like we were in the deepest shadow of winter! Hopefully spring will arrive soon!

Sightings

Within the last few weeks I have had several wildlife sightings around our house.
There was a pair of bald eagles flying overhead. The clue to their presence was the squawking and cackling of about ten ravens. They were making an awful racket as the eagles were soaring overhead.
We also saw a fisher for the very first time. It was running on top of the snow. We had observed paw prints all over that we could not identify but turned out to be the fisher's.
Quite a sight!

Long Tailed Weasel

A splendid long tailed weasel came for a visit underneath our bird feeder. It was probably searching for mice (possibly birds?). It was in its winter coat, all white except for the tip of it's tail which was black. It was my first sighting ever of this elusive creature.