On Tuesdays I take a friend’s dog out for a mid-day walk, and today I thought to head down to the water after the good pup “Oliver” finished his rounds. The last couple of days have been cool and overcast, but given the generally warm weather and rain over the last couple of weeks I was surprised to see that there are still some patches of ice out on Mud Lake. The buildup tends to be along the southern banks, which makes sense since they’re the ones most shaded from the sun. Meanwhile some creatures are doing all they can to capture as much of its warmth as possible:

These two Painted Turtles appeared to be facing each other on their separate logs. Many ducks were seen roving the shores, these all paired off except for one lonely fellow. As usual the Chickadees and Crows were in abundance, but I was most happy to see the White-breasted Nuthatches at work again:

For some reason I’ve come to love these birds. They’re great to watch as they nimbly make their ways around tree trunks, tentative yet industrious, with flashes of curiosity.

There were at least a couple of them in the area (east side of Mud Lake). I usually see them along the south side of Britannia Bay, but haven’t ventured over there yet this year. I did go down by the river though, over by the Britannia Yacht Club, and took photos of the water:

Today’s beach-combing yielded the usual odds and ends: an old running shoe, two empty bottles of Corona, and various shreds of plastic bags (which, at a distance, can look somewhat bird-like). But I’ll let you know if anything interesting washes up.