More Nature Pics!

Our family had a great time relaxing and spending time outdoors this past weekend at my parent's cottage again. I had the pleasure of teaching our oldest daughter Chelsea how to cross-country ski and Wendy & I managed to escape for a few kms of skiing on our own as well. Books were read, games were played, and fun was had. Interestingly, the local wildlife heard about the the big party and joined right in! We had deer, finches, grey jays, chickadees, nuthatches all on our front deck. Frankly, it is starting to feel a bit creepy how friendly the animals are around there...we even had a silver fox visit us one evening. I didn't get much of a picture as he was a wee bit skiddish and he came in the cover of night making a good exposure almost impossible without a tripod. Enjoy!

On of our friendly neighbourhood deer who likes to relax on our deck. At one point there were three white-tailed deer walking around our front deck. They even looked in our windows...

Deer eating some snow?

Creepy deer invasion - I took this one behind a bit of a snow drift hence the white in the foreground. I think it added to the creepy Hitchcock factor in the frame.

Some kind of Manitoba Parrot? I think it is a purple finch maybe a local ornithologist could confirm that.

Another shot of the finch.

A Nuthatch - quite a nervous bird as it lands for about 2 seconds grabs its seeds and flies away!

The classic but quick chickadee!

This is a shot of the cottage at night - I'll redo it with a tripod sometime. The windows are a little blurred as I hand held the camera.

A grey jay captured in flight - they like to freefall for the first half second before spreading out their wings.

Another shot of the grey jay

The silver fox - unfortunately a not well-exposed shot due to the lack of light. He had a quite nice coat - in the light reflected a silvery charcoal color.