Lots of Birds/Lots of Seed!!!

The birds were cold this morning and when not gorging themselves on seed, they were fluffing up to keep warm.

You can see the amount of snow on the branches, it finally stopped last night, got colder, and was a lovely sunny day today. This bluejay is annoyed to find the sunflower seeds gone from this feeder!

Doesn't this bluejay look like a little fatty?! He's not, just really fluffed up to try and keep warm.

This is how they "insulate" themselves.

This female hairy woodpecker is finding more food on the ground than pecking on the tree trunks

We have seen only male evening grosbeaks so far, not sure why the females are missing. This year seems to be bringing back more grosbeaks and bluejays than the last two. It will be nice if we are back to normal bird populations this year, except for having to purchase way more seed again

Looks like a little dancing circle here....All these pictures were taken from a bedroom window, including the one below.

There were 4 deer almost directly behind the window, but by the time I ran for the camera and came back, they were on the move. They actually just went over to the west side of the house and found a few apples over there.

Snow and cold...

I'm glad we don't have the amount of snow that some poor folk in southern parts of Ontario received recently, but we've got more "cold" today. Our walks were pretty brisk!!! First sunny day in a while.

I just hope we don't lose all our trails again this year. We were running out of nice places to walk last winter. Oh, this is about as far as Blast goes and then turns around to make sure I'm coming....

Blast the predator in this photo. He's certainly begun to fill out a little and looks quite a bit more mature...19 mons. now. He was the only one this morning not to get "cold feet" in the snow.

Happy Birthday, Jess!

The little princess, Jess, turned sixteen years old today. Hard to believe, in many ways. I'll add a link at the end for those that do not know "The story of Jess" if you are interested. She came to live with us at 9 1/2 from an awful earlier life. Became a pet therapy dog and just recently retired from this 'job' after visiting for six years. Jess got a PEN number with CKC and earned a Rally Novice title when she was 13. She then began to track and earned her Tracking Dog title just two months before turning 15.
Jess is getting ready for her little birthday party here. We usually have all the dogs together and have iced carrot muffins. However, I changed the menu for Jess and Storm, who is attending, as they are getting a little old for the usual 'party'.

They look like they think I'm going to set them on fire...instead of the muffins, they are having a little ice cream with strawberry yogourt.

Yummy, yummy, this is even better, I think they are saying.

I think it went over well! The other dogs know exactly what we're doing, and got theirs a little later. Oh, and Storm is due to turn 16 in January...another party!

http://www.dogsincanada.com/jess-story-an-old-dog-learns-new-tricks

There is also a link in this story describing Jess' former life in B.C. before she came to us.

Her biggest thrill today was probably rolling in the deep, fresh snow early this morning. She's a real little cutie.

I think winter is here to stay..

Another walk in the forest today and the dogs were just loving it. All kinds of fresh tracks out there to inspect...fox, rabbit, deer...and the usual rodent hunting.
Trust was having a great time looking for "things" under the snow.

It's a race back, with Tank in the lead, leaping over a log, and Trust close behind....

Blast is checking out what's up there with the Frog Princess. Our Frog Princess is chalkware, was a gift years ago from a friend who painted her up nicely, as a princess frog should be. She has lost her glow, but still reigns supreme over the comings and goings in the forest.

Heading back on one of the trails, Blast is giving his impression of a wolf. I can imagine if we ever came across a wayward person wandering onto our property, he might appear to be a wolf.