Nature in winter

We are up to 16 inches of snow now. This morning, after the night's snowfall, all traces of our activity the day before were erased. No trail out to the bird feeder, no sign of the cleared walkway. Yesterday was gray, snowy, and gloomy. Today, the sun has peeked through the clouds in between the occasional snow flurry. When it falls, the snow falls down today, instead of sideways, as it had been doing since Monday.


The birds and squirrels are out and about. The squirrels have set trails across the backyard, converging on the bird feeder. One set comes from the northwest corner, hopping from hole to hole - the bounds are quite long for such small animals, about as long as my stride. Another set comes from the east, circling a small spruce that provides a bit of shelter from the wind, and any watching eyes. Do all the squirrels use both trails, or are they different clans, only meeting at the neutral ground of the feeder?

Canada geese are still passing through. They fly over in mega-flocks, aggregated from small groups, honking back and forth as they prepare to land on the canal, or take off again. They never seem to actually fly in a southerly direction - is it the same flock, circling through, day after day? No way to tell from the ground, unable to decipher their calls - do the geese from different areas have accents?

The canal itself is frozen over, even under the bridges where open ice seems to remain the longest. The ice is covered with snow - hiding the remains of human activities that were uncovered when the canal level dropped - the two shopping carts, a discarded bicycle. The ice probably isn't very thick, or completely solid. It rained on Sunday evening, just warm enough to break up the ice and cause some small floes to form, and open areas that the geese filled. But that was before the temperatures dropped again, down into the 20s, and the snow started up again.