Deer on the highway
we have seen very few deer this winter as the snow has been so deep it is difficult for them to move around easily. However we saw this one yesterday running down the yellow line in the middle of the highway. We worried that it might encounter oncoming traffic, however none appeared and we breathed a sigh of relief when it decided to move onto the shoulder of the highway. a much better choice lady deer!
There was no oncoming traffic, but there was traffic behind the deer. We were following it on the shoulder and there was traffic coming behind us. We could not stop for fear that the traffic behind us would pass and hit the deer. Finally the deer made its own decision and jumped into, or onto, the snowbank of the ditch to our right. You can see the depth of snow on its legs in the photo as it jumped, but to live and run another day was its choice.
And more magically work has been about and the depth of the snow underneath our blue house feeder has lowered considerably. I now have hopes that I might be able to manage a trip to bird Alley soon to refill our feeders!
And, Alas, all is not lost! This garden gate has made a reappearance from out of the snow. It could not be seen, nor any parts of it last week. I am taking the welcome on the gate personally and the season is now making me feel welcome again in my own back yard. Although there has to be a lot more dissapearance of snow before I can liesurely walk around freely out doors again, I am feeling greatly optimistic. I have even seen some green grass around the base of our two large old maple trees. Isn't spring wonderful in its anticipaton and arrival?! Yes! I'll be right back, I have to run outdoors to take a picture of the green grass!! 
After, just see the difference in the depth of the snow now!!!!
This old cast iron water pump, shown above,a marvellous buy at a yard sale for $2.oo is not really used as pump but is standing on a 2x6 for decoration, and it doubles as a bird feeder when I sprinkle bird food in its spout, But Not this winterthough, the snow is too deep to get to it!
I seldom attempt to venture into Bird Alley anymore as you can see from the picture above showing the partially opened gate there is so much snow. Too much!
These feeders in our back yard stand empty too!. Maybe next winter I should invest in a pair of snowshoes, but no, hopefully we don't have another winter that is as snowy as this one has been. I know spring will return for it happens every year? "Please hurry Spring. " I am waiting for you with open arms and have high hopes of greeting and feeding returning birds!
The cinnamon coloured undertail shown in the above picture identifies the above Waxwing as a Bohemian Waxwing.
Its white belly really stood out when it was perched in a tree. It was quite a distance away but I had brought along my telephoto 400 mm lens and it proved to be quite an asset in our hawk photography yesterday. We considered we were off to a good start and so with high hopes we drove on down the highway.
Our second hawk sighting came right away, but as the sun was shining directly at my camera when I tried to photograph this second sighting ,making it difficult at first to id the hawk.We were able to get a better view as this hawk flew on down the highway and perched on a frost covered branch of another tree which reached over the highway. Were we happy? 'Yes!" Our day was proving to be quite successful!
and we were able to take another picture of it! As it appeared to be so dark, we erroneously thought it was perhaps a dark phase morph of the rough legged hawk. Photo Shop proved us wrong.
We had suspected this second dark shape wasn't a hawk as it appeared to be quite large andalthough it did have white markings on it, but not like a rough legged's markings. It was an Eagle! please click to enlarge the picture below so we may share with you what we had seen. It was a magnificent sighting.
Oh happy day! We were having a wonderful time! We drove on down the highway and turned by the bridge crossing the river there. We saw no more intriguing black shapes in trees around there and we decided to return to Oromocto to do our intended grocery shopping. On our return back up the highway, the Eagle we had seen was still perched there so we took more photos of it.
It looked rather scruffy and rugged looking perched among the frost covered branches. Before we left the area we spied another dark shape in a tree as shown below.,
. But another day might reveal what?! Our hawk sighting appetite had been appeased for the day? We hope you have enjoyed reading about and viewing pictures of our successful 'hawk and eagle day!'
Below are Roger's observations of the visiting magpies:
This magpie above apparently likes feeding from the suet feeder Roger has provided for the bird visitors to his backyard.
