The Craftiest Workshop

As most of you know, we moved onto a 15 acre property in late November. There were many reasons that prompted us to move into the country and one of them was the wildlife. Living in the city, you are lucky to see anything besides the odd raven or robin.

This past winter we had many visitors to our property as proven by the animal tracks and left behind “chocolate Easter eggs”. We were lucky to see a few moose, deer, foxes and a pack of coyotes at different times at a distance. We could see them all clearly using our binoculars so they remain on our counter always at the ready.

The other spectacular thing about winter in the country is the silence, the absolute peaceful silence. After a snowfall, standing outside in the evening, I would look up at the dark starry sky and I could hear absolutely nothing…it was wonderful. When you get used to that utter lack of sound and you hear a coyote pack howl, waking you from a dead sleep, it feels quite eerie. They howl mostly at night during mating season from Jan-Mar.

Spring in the country is the total opposite. All day and all night you can hear the birds and animals creating a symphony of sounds. We have frogs and ducks in the creek. Song birds like robins, chickadees, blackbirds and sparrows in the trees. A pair of Pileated woodpeckers are hard at work getting some bugs out of a few of our dead trees. There is also a few Ruffed Grouse wandering about in the forest and a hawk that comes by to hunt twice a day. Here is the sound when we go for a walk near the creek. Turn up your volume.

I have been on a few walks and where I have encountered a feathered friend. Three times I have just looked down and staring up at me is this beautiful grouse. It doesn’t fly away but pecks around like a chicken making almost a cooing sound. For some odd reason, I feel the need to talk to it, so I do.

I also like to try to mimic certain bird calls and often they call back to me. Reminds me of my brother Russell when he often mentioned talking to the ravens in Fort Mac.

On Saturday I wandered through my makeshift forest path and all of a sudden two moose arose quickly from sleeping in the long grass and thundered away from me. They were about 20ft in front of me and must have heard me coming. Not sure who was more frightened, them or me.

I have not been able to capture anything close up on camera yet. I don’t like to carry my iPad around when walking around outside. Maybe a camera will be a future purchase or at least a phone that can actually take pictures.

So, all in all, we are really enjoying the wonderful wildlife we have seen and hope we get more glimpses in the days to come.