Let’s see if I can schedule this one correctly this time.

In any case, I sometimes have better luck getting picture of beaver in the winter than in summer, and here’s one example:

Hoodies are the only mergansers we see, and when the river starts freezing up, we can hope to catch some glimpses of common mergansers, such as this drake with four hens.

Once the ice forms on the river,

you might be surprised to see this year-round resident as well, but here’s a female belted kingfisher picture from the same day as the ice picture above.

Here’s a sight I don’t get to see everyday, even though they are year-round residents, a great blue heron in the snow.

Here an interesting one, if you haven’t seen it before, an American black duck, a drake by the looks of that yellow bill, hiding amongst the mallards.

One of my favorite parts of winter is the snow because it makes everything look nice. Here are a few of our year-round critters looking especially nice in the snow.

A male northern cardinal.

A female northern cardinal.

A mourning dove

And a red-tailed hawk

Buffleheads and hooded mergansers are nice, but how about this goldeneye drake? I can’t wait to see them again.

While I’m on the road, here’s another treat we might expect this coming winter. Sure, we see hooded mergansers from time to time, but we don’t often get to see them parked on the ice.

Welp, I already tipped my had last evening when I accidentally sent out “Travel Day 9” ahead of schedule. Anyway, as you have probably surmised by now, Anne and I are on the road again, and I’ve got my camera with me, but I don’t expect to have sufficient internet for a while, so I’ve scheduled the following posts to appear automagically while I’m gone. This time, I’m featuring the critters we might expect to see this winter.

First up, is this amazing buttlehead pair from February 23, 2022

If we get lucky, we might even get to see a gadwall drake again