Good morning everyone! It’s a beautiful, sunny and mild morning here at Steve’s Country today. Mild for us at least, with a temp of 10F (-12C). The coffee is ready too, so just help yourself and relax with us for a few minutes. Yesterday was just amazing, the sun was shining brightly, the temp hit a wonderful 43F (6C) and there was a very strong west wind. Having that wind with a temp like that really cuts the snow down fast. I went for a walk to the river yesterday afternoon and the change in snow depth was very noticeable. Before the snow was anywhere from 16 to 23 inches (40 to 57cm) deep. Yesterday those same areas where I measured were 8 to 13 inches (20 to 33cm) deep, about half what it was before, and it still did a fair bit of melting after I measured.

Many places there was ground showing once more, especially down close to the river. Sitting on the bench was really very nice, even with the strong wind blowing across that cold water. Large pieces of ice were floating down the river, going against that strong wind and moving fast, showing just how strong that current is in the river. There was even a small stick floating along that normally would be blown around by the wind, but it was moving quickly against the wind as well. It was very beautiful along the river yesterday. There were two fairly large flocks of ducks, one had about 50 birds, the other was maybe a bit smaller at 40 birds. There was also a couple of eagles flying around the whole time I was there. One flock of ducks decided to fly off to another part of the river, I think the eagles made them nervous.

But one lone male goldeneye decided to stay behind. I guess the fishing was good and he didn’t want to leave. One of those eagles decided to come too close to that duck so he dove underwater for safety. But the eagle kept flying around about 10 feet above the water. Finally the duck had to come up for air and the eagle fell to the water coming up with the duck in his sharp talons. He first carried it over to the ice and then onto the rock by the shore, but then flew off with his meal over the trees somewhere. Goldeneye ducks make up part of the eagles winter food supply. They will also eat fish a lot and any dead animals they can find. However, they can go for days after a good meal before they need to eat again, otherwise we wouldn’t have any ducks left by spring. More warm spring like days are coming this week, have a wonderful day and God bless!

Steve and Muffin.

©2021 Steve McLeod.