Spring in the Northland – Part I

Even though there’s still snow on the ground and ice on the pond there’s been lots of action around here.  On Sunday morning we saw an eagle land on the ice and watched it try to grab something that was frozen in..  I took pictures from inside the cabin.  From past experience I know if I want a picture, take it now, don’t go outside because it just scares the birds or animals away.At the time I didn’t know what the eagle was trying to get, but now that the ice has melted some, we can see this is the head of a duck decoy we left out there last fall. 

Out on a drive on Sunday we saw this proud grouse strutting across the road.  And of course the deer come by here a couple times each day to see if there’s any corn or sunflowers for them to snack on.  This was from rainy Sunday.In the past we’ve seen an occasional otter swimming around in the pond.  This is the first year we’ve seen three of them and were able to watch them play around on the ice.  Otters know how to have fun and they seem to be goofing off most of the time…except if other critters are around.  These two were keeping an eye on me while I was keeping an eye on them. This one wasn’t happy to see a pair of great blue herons land on the ice near their open water. (Also taken from inside the cabin.  Herons have eyesight as good as eagles.)
Jim got this picture of the otters (we’re calling them “The Three Amigos”) and one of the three beavers.  We have the trail cam running and so far only deer and a raccoon have gotten their pictures taken.  Stay tuned, spring has just started up here.