Mulling things on my morning ramble with Storm, our family’s mixed Lab.
Canada geese raised such a racket on the lake to the west that it reached all the way to our house as we set off.
I can’t figure out if simply inertia on the part of the geese, that they can’t figure out how to get out of print journalism and into other platforms, wait, that is somebody else.
Actually, I think inertia on their part or a lack of initiative is why they linger on, swimming open a small hole in the lake while the snow piles up. Last night, I did a rough count of several hundred geese around the hole they are keeping open when I drove some kids home in the early snow.
I will grant there is a certain ingenuity in swimming open a hole for themselves.
All the same, I am keeping with my prediction yesterday, the geese will be headed south to Crab Orchard or at least central Illinois by this afternoon or evening, open hole or not.
One fresh set of fresh rabbit tracks by the woodworker’s house across from the bus barn.
The meathead wanted to turn left for an extended ramble as we crossed the side rail separating the town from the wildness of the town pond, but it was tough enough wading through the several inches of wet snow that I pulled him on the regular ramble.
The wet snow made for a stunningly beautiful morning. The snow clotted white frames on trees, brush and brown weeds.
If we are going to have this kind of winter, at least Mother Nature can give us some stark beauty.
As I tried to capture the beauty in photos, I noticed several holes an ice fisherman had drilled yesterday. You can see one in the upper right in the photo above.
On the trail, formerly a side rail, above the south end of the south pit, three mourning doves whistle-fluttered off. One was so close when it flushed that I could have plucked it from the air. But I restrained myself.
Two more doves fluttered around the wires by the grain elevators on the edge of town. A flock of 15 rock doves (barn pigeons) wheeled in the snowy sky above the grain elevators.
Back in town, a lone dove came off the wires by the house with the feeders across from the bus barn.
A gray squirrel snuck up an evergreen across from the bur oaks a street over.
Far more wildlife activity than I expected.
Back home, the snow had picked up in intensity.
