Country Pleasures. #2 Winter Walk.

Hi everyone and Happy Friday! It is a nice, sunny day here and quite pleasant for a winter day. The temperature is 12F (-11C) and it doesn’t seem to be so windy now like it was this morning. We might get a bit of snow tomorrow, though nothing serious. Actually, we haven’t even had one major snowstorm yet this winter which is rather unusual. It’s also rather nice.

This is actually nice weather for outdoor walking in the winter. It’s not so cold that you have to wear multi layers of clothing which is nice. It makes walking much easier as well. And, for someone like me who likes to take pictures while out walking, this weather is ideal too. Mainly because it’s much easier to use a camera with bare hands instead of trying to fumble around with heavy mitts on, which just doesn’t work too well.

That means taking the mitts off and hopefully taking the picture before my fingers freeze. It’s a perfect kind of day for a walk to the river. The path is still nice and hard from the snowmobile packing it down and people walking on it. The day of these pictures I’m showing today, it was a bit colder than it is now. The temperature was sitting at -20F with a light wind, still not too bad for taking pictures with bare hands.

I stopped in many places to get some winter photos of the snow among the trees. It was a cloudy day though and I’m not really a fan of cloudy weather for photos. Colors are much more vibrant when the sun shines. Anyway, I walked along the path and enjoyed the winter beauty. There wasn’t much bird activity that day though I did see a few chickadees in one spot along the path.

Once down at the river there was much more activity with the ducks swimming around. They were busy feeding, continually diving under the water to grab a passing minnow. They would spend their whole day on the river, then as the daylight was nearly gone they would fly to a spot down on the lake for the night. There are areas on the lake that never freeze, just like the river.

I’m not quite sure why they didn’t just stay at the river to sleep, they would save a lot of energy. But perhaps there are more dangers on the river. The snow is never as deep at the river, mainly because the wind blows it back into the trees. Then there is the walk back after spending some time watching the ducks, all were Common Goldeneyes that day, over 50 of them at that location.

It is so beautiful walking to the river, one of my favorite country pleasures, even in the winter. Though it is even nicer in the summer. Have a great weekend everyone and God bless!

Steve. ©2026 Steve McLeod.