Winter's last gasp?

It snowed a couple of nights ago. And it was really pretty--for a few hours. After dinner I headed off to a meeting in our neighbourhood crunching through the snow. Everyone was out enjoying a taste of the winter the rest of Canada experiences.









The following morning we headed off to Beacon Hill Park. The snow shadows make for nice photos of dead grass. And we enjoyed seeing the ice on the ponds and lakes there.

But it seems that it didn't make the ducks very happy. They had abandoned their usual practice of swimming around ducking under the water to feed. They were standing disconsolately around at the edge of the melting snow wondering what to do.

These ones had discovered something edible in the mud at the edge of the snow and we busy feeding there. Including one Canada Goose that had flown in from somewhere else. (Usually we see these out at the bigger lakes but not often in the park).

Across the lake there were bunches of ducks shivering on the ice and looking very unhappy and cold indeed. 

I love the way their orange feet show up against the ice. We felt quite sorry for the ducks, who are really not used to their ponds being frozen over. Fortunately as we were leaving, a guy pulled up in his car and started scattering duck food around on the pathway.

Here's what happened then: Every duck within sight started running or flying over to join the fray. 

We left the park knowing that the ducks were being fed and headed home to make our own cozy dinner. There's something nice about cooking on a snowy night.


 


Today there's still snow but it's melting. There may be a little more tonight but the forecast is for temperatures to rise tomorrow. We're hoping that it's winter's last gasp--and so are the ducks.