Snow, Cold, Beauty All Around

And the Snow Grew Deeper Still...            21 February 2014

Along the Saint Croix River, deer beds are low, deep in the snow.  I imagine the insulation of three feet of snow must work wonders against the bitter, relentless subzero cold.   As I encounter each deer bed, my snowshoes tower above the tiny swirl of leaf litter in the basin of the bed.  The deer must be barely visible, if visible at all when bedded, a tiny black nose or soft ears poking just above the skim of white powder. My fears of Winter's ability to decimate the herd are fading quickly. This is a warm shelter that must rival a well-made quinzhee hut.   Indeed there are are good numbers of deer along the river, despite fifty days this winter with waking temperatures far below zero Fahrenheit (-18 C).

When the winds blow, even the winter-hardened, skillful hunter retires to hibernation.   On calm days, I venture out on snowshoes to see what stirs and to feel some connection with the bitter cold.  While birds are scarce this year, otters have decorated the snow with endless trails along frozen bays skirting the open water seeps.  There is life here and there in the frozen quiet calm.

These images were made with a refurbished Canon 7D and 300mm f4L IS lens.  The header image was made using a Nokia Lumia 928 phone with Carl Zeiss optics.  No fingers were lost in the making of this blog.