and a strong cup of coffee

Reason number 3,657,935 why my Dad is the best: As we were snowmobiling, we approached a bog and three eagles with about 20 crows took off.  It could only mean one thing in my book - something was dead.  We circled back and walked around in the snow but the birds had left and we couldnt find anything that would resemble a meal.  A part of me thinks that we were in the wrong piece of land and should have been on the other side of the bog but in our snowmobile gear, we were not going to cover a lot of ground.  I was disappointed that we couldn't find what the birds were eating but I was able to get some good pictures of one of the mature eagles and the immature eagle that were flying around.

While Staci and I were out paddling, we had the chance to get pretty close to female Mallards and a Blue Heron as it fished.

I found this turtle trying to cross the road on my way home after work. I was the obnoxious person who put their car's hazard lights on and stood in the middle of the road until the turtle was safely on the other side. Once I walked up close to him, he took off and was not wasting any time. It's that time of year!  Watch out for them in the roads.

This mourning dove would not move from my flower bed. I flushed her mate but she refused to budge. 

There is something so wonderful about not living in a city; wildlife!  The deer are looking fantastic this spring since we had such a mild winter.  They are in the process of shedding but if all goes well, they will be big, fat and healthy once fall comes. Yearling deer steps into the driveway Doe eating grass on the edge of the driveway

After a good rain in the early spring months, you can usually find some great animal tracks.  Here, a yearling and cow moose ran down the edge of the road.  This is the yearlings track, its the same size as my hand!

You can learn a lot by what animals leave behind.  In this case, a bear was able to get a nice chunk of venison.  The size and the amount of hair (you can see the white and tan hairs closest to my foot) tells you that this bear took more than just a nibble at the deer.   Bear are one of the biggest predators of deer; especially deer fawns in the spring.  Clearly there is one less deer in this area then there was before winter started!

Each year, a pair of Mallard ducks land in the pond. Most of the time, they leave after a week or so but this year, they seem to be staying around.  We are hoping for some ducklings later on this spring. Female Mallard sits on a potential nest while the male looks on Male and female Mallard Male Mallard duck

You can find some pretty cool things while walking in the woods and along back roads. I am going to try to share more of these finds with  you, more often.  First up, these awesome antlers! They were on the side of a hunting cabin at the very end of a dirt road. 

While cutting some firewood, Dad, Hubby and I scoped out some of the land that we hunt on.  We were looking for tracks and maybe a sighting or two.  It was a great day for wildlife; I had seen a 4 or 6 point buck in velvet along the edge of the road that morning when I went to get some coffee. It almost looks like a chair The birds must be eating well The rain wasn't too bad so we explored as threw some firewood into the truck.  It was a quiet, nice day in the woods and we were able to look around and plan our routes into the woods for this fall. The road into the woodlot Tools of the trade Dad can spot an animal track while in a truck traveling along.  I am not nearly as good.  I missed these tracks but Dad had seen two different spots over the course of a week.  The day after this, we saw the moose! A young bull moose track

It was cold, but the sun was out and Dad, Hubby and I were eager to go into the woods to look at where T3 will be set up, bring in a couple of tree stands and I wanted to look for sheds. The recent dusting of snow helped to see any new deer tracks.  It also helped to see the main trails and activity of the deer herd.  There were a lot of spots that looked like this.  The deer have been on an acorn frenzy and since there is not a lot of snow, they can still paw at the ground and leaves to find them.  Deer paw for acorns buried along the leaves and snow. I tracked a couple of deer from the Sky Condo as we made our way to my treeseat where I shot my deer this year .  It is always amazing and kind of frustrating to see how close the deer are around you and yet, you don't see them during the season.  But, it is also good to see that there are SO many deer around where we hunt.  Some of the trails amazed me.  They were like super highways throu...