Took a quick afternoon trip up Indian River Valley to swap out ibuttons. It was a clear and chilly day.

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Indian River Cascade illuminated by the low-elevation sun of winter.

It's not difficult to tell where the sun doesn't reach in the muskeg this time of year.

This lichen may be Dimerella lutea, but I'm not sure.

Large frost crystalls have built up on the needles of a muskeg shore pine.

I was amused to see this deer close to the trail near the end of deer season. No doubt some hunters would have liked to take this shot.

A an inch or so of fresh snow made for some nice tracks.

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Connor followed the fresh deer tracks through the neighborhood woods.

Connor actually caught up with the deer and could see it here, though it's not visible through the bushes in the photo.

This pictures shows where the deer had been feeding moments before.

Deer tracks in the snow.

Great Blue Heron tracks observed on bank of flume at Sheldon Jackson Campus.

Great Blue Heron tracks observed on bank of flume at Sheldon Jackson Campus.

Can you spot the deer?

This Sitka Black-tailed Deer was fairly unconcerned with me. I was probably within 10-15 feet when this photo was taken.

Sitka Blacktail Deer (Odocoileus hemionus sitkensis) observed on Hillcrest Drive.

A few evenings ago I noticed a female deer in our back yard. She seemed a bit larger than I might expect, so I wondered if she might be pregnant. It turns out that Sitka Blacktailed Deer typically give birth in late May or early June, so the timing would not suggest that she isn’t. If so, it might be interesting to see if she stays around the neighborhood with a young deer. At least two deer, including one buck, have been frequenting the neighborhood, and I am sort of assuming that it’s consistently been the same individuals. I also wonder if they are the same individuals that we have seen over the past couple of years, mostly in the spring.

It’s interesting that these deer have shown up in recent years. My dad said that in all the years he had a garden up here, he only remembered seeing deer tracks once. I’ve found them many more times than that in the last three years, so that suggests to me that this incursion of deer is relatively recent. I wonder why they have decided the neighborhood isn’t a bad place after apparently avoiding it previously.