The warm spell is over

Overnight lows were still above freezing, but the clear skies provided us with a nice thick coating of frost again this morning, which made a pretty backdrop for our opening scene.

Yup another doe and her buck, an 8-pointer this time, were checking out the soccer fields early this morning. I never had a good shot of them close together, maybe they were having one of those mornings, but here’s a close-up of each of them.

How’s that for a handsome couple, eh?

Here’s a closer look at that frost, too, bejeweling an oak leaf.

Unfortunately, I don’t have a lot to report after that. The sky clouded up, the pond was empty, and the only birds I saw on the river were mallards and this lone kingfisher in one of her favorite spots out over the water beside the northern island.

The last bright spot of the morning was this female cardinal foraging on the forest floor as I made my way south along the river.

I can totally get the limited appeal, but I’m looking forward to the river icing over so that more birds come to take advantage of the open water preserved by our falls and the rapids below them.