Another day, another walk down to the Grasse River. Only this time dog and I went in a different direction and headed to the beaver pond (swamp). I was a bit surprised to only see 3 deer along the way.

See them? If you look really really hard you might make them out.

Cropping the photo to display one small section revels what stands hidden on the other side of the treeline between the fields. I was a bit surprised not to see any other wildlife along our way to the river.

The last field we crossed was the previous year’s free lunch buffet for the wildlife. The corn was not harvested last fall and provided plenty of good eating for the deer and turkeys. This year the field was left fallow and abandoned by all but the weeds. At this point dog and I took a hard left and headed toward the river.

Nope, this is not the Grasse River. It is actually a beaver pond (swamp) that few ever see. The dam lies in the distance at the far end. We crossed at the shallow end. If I was going to break through the ice I was going to make sure I only got my feet wet.

Looking towards the river. The beaver pond lies hidden behind that river bank. If you canoed down the river you would never suspect such a large pond/swamp was back there.

Looking back in the direction we came from. The fallow field is behind the ‘dip’ in the tree line. There’s about a 20 foot drop from the field to the water (ice) line.

A section of ‘high’ ground about 200 feet wide separates the river from the swamp. Once we got to the river we followed it upstream just a little ways to where I took this photo of a farm on the opposite side.

Another view across the frozen Grasse River a bit farther upstream. Something caught my eye at that point. No – it wasn’t the deer tracks on the river ice nor the farm peeking through the brush. It was movement, and by now you should be able to guess what I’m going to feed ya.

Bet ya didn’t see the turkeys in the photo above. Let me zoom in for ya.

We crossed the largest of the corn fields on the way home. The sun was out but it couldn’t burn it’s way through the overcast.

Weed free garden.
How the mighty have fallen. The victors of the summer battle of weeds may have gotten the best of me but they sure couldn’t stand up to the forces of winter. They now lie buried under snow leaving the garden clean and neat.

The cuttings from my Autumn Joy sedum emerge from the blanket of snow. The snow caps on them caught my attention so I began today’s walk with a side trip to the garden in the hopes of capturing a nice winter image.

Dog wasn’t amused. It was time to go sniffing about and any delay was not acceptable.

A fairy village?

Nope, just some garden variety snow cones.

And now for a little turkey

Pook as usual scared up a group of turkeys before I had a chance to. The turkeys had scratched up a section of the field foraging for corn. Here, she stands licking her nose after smelling turkey. Meanwhile the group made their escape but I did manage to snap a photo.

They’ll be back tomorrow.
The corn fields are the only reliable source of food keeping such a large population fed through the winter.

Another post of the same old wildlife stew I see nearly every day.

Yesterday a turkey sentry foiled my attempt to sneak up on the flock. I spotted it before it saw me but there was no getting around it.

My estimate of how many turkeys live in the neighborhood took a big jump when I saw this flock. There were at least 40 left in the field by the time I managed to get a photograph. Who knows how many vanished from sight before I made it to the crest of the rise and could actually see the corn field. That sentry had gobbled a warning and the flock was in full retreat.

This is a continuation of the view at the extreme right. Just a little bit beyond that the turkeys were disappearing into the woods at the corner of the field.

Continuing our hike dog and I came across other small groups of turkeys in more corn fields. I’d estimate I easily saw more than 60 turkeys on our walk that day. Who knows how many remained out of sight? I used to think there was probably 40 to 60 turkeys around. So much for thinking.

Pookey finally sees some deer. …and froze in her tracks. This might actually be the first time she actually saw any deer on one of our walks.

Once dog and I made the rounds of the crop fields we headed through the woods to the porcupine tree. It seemed ‘snowball’ had not moved since the last visit but this time it at least looked at me with sleepy eyes.