A Winter Walk

We are currently in the midst of a cold wave and therefore don't get out much. My only exposure to winter weather is walking from the car to a store and back. When I had to attend to some business at the Audubon nature reserve this weekend, my husband tagged along and we headed to a trail. It was the first day in almost two weeks that the temperature climbed above freezing and we wanted to take advantage of it to get some fresh air.
The trails were covered with snow and we detected more animal tracks than footprints from people. We played detective and tried to figure out who the tracks belonged to. We guessed correctly which tracks were made by squirrels and which ones by deer. In fact, we even flushed out four deer on our lonely walk through the winter woods. These deer showed us that the woods aren't deserted after all. There are the usual winter birds such as red-bellied woodpecker, black-capped chickadees, and tufted titmice. Later in the thickets, we observed numerous white-throated sparrows and northern cardinals. In other words, we saw the same birds that visit our feeders every day.
My bird photography is currently on hiatus because of the low temperatures. I keep busy preparing photographs for a craft show I'll be attending on Saturday. And I cannot wait for spring to get out there again with my camera and photograph the species that have eluded me so far. Last year has been a great one for my stock photo list. I'm now offering my photos at www.photographersdirect.com.