Winter Visitors

Our portion of Lake Laberge did not freeze over until the cold snap that started on December 15th. Ice started happening in the shallower nooks and crannies of the lake in mid-November but due to some periodic fierce winds – both north and south winds - our part of the lake remained open until mid December.During the last week of November a trumpeter swan came visiting and started feeding along the shoreline in front of the house, a strange visitor during a time when ice floes are forming and drifting with the wind all around the lake. Both dogs were quite astonished and forgot to sound off when the bird first appeared, after all this was winter and there was snow on the ground, what was it doing there?

The bird stayed with us for days, nonchalantly swimming to and fro along the shoreline, periodically dipping down to feed off the shallow bottom. It seemed not the least bit concerned about the dogs tracking it along the beach, something the dogs did religiously every time it appeared. Our dogs, both seniors, learned early in life not to enter the water in freezing temperatures and the swan was quite safe from a spontaneous four legged charge from the shore.

I am told that parts of the Thirty-Mile section of the Yukon River stay open all winter and that it is not unusual to see a number of waterfowl spend the winter there. I hope that our itinerant swan was based there and that it will survive the winter.

The first week of December brought another strange visitor. One morning, at first light, I looked out of our lakeside window to see a buck deer lunching at the bird feeder that stands about ten feet from the window. There is no doubt the animal could see the activities happening all around him but that seemed no never mind. It was helping himself to the sunflower seeds scattered on the ground around the feeder. Once it had cleared those, it pawed the ground in search of more, not realizing that the source of supply was just above his antlers.

The deer stayed long enough for me to get a few close-up pictures. It then cruised the yard in search of further fodder and finally ambled off into the bush as if we were just another stop in the food chain.

Yesterday I was at the woodshed filling the wheelbarrow with firewood destined for the house when I found a pile of rosehips carefully tucked away between billets of wood. I hated to disturb the goodies but hey, that’s life and I hope the little critter finds his store of grub where I left it underneath a piece of 2X4 of the lean-to wall.

Life goes on all around us despite the cold weather and I consider myself lucky to be able to adjust our immediate surroundings to an acceptable level of comfort. When feeling hard done by, all I have to do is remember our strange winter visitors who have a much harder time surviving the weather at times like this.