A FEW SIMPLE ENVIRONMENTAL OBSERVATIONS

LOOKS LIKE GOOD FISHING OFF THE MOUTH OF THE SIOUX RIVER

MOURNING DOVE...SURVIVING THE WINTER WELL

Thursday,  9:00 AM.  22 degrees F, wind W, light.  The sky is overcast with snow clouds and it has been snowing, dime-sided flakes drifting straight down.  The humidity is up to 93% and the barometer is down, to 29.34".  I shoveled three inches of fluffy snow from the drive after walking our usual route with Buddy.  It was a nice walk on soft new snow, the morning really quite beautiful, with a lot of bird activity.
   I am tired of the dismal news and all the politics, so today I will report a few simple environmental observations.
   I drove down Friendly Valley Road to the beach yesterday late afternoon, and two young guys were coming off the ice after fishing out a ways from the mouth of the Sioux River.  They had a nice catch of brown trout.  Nothing better in the pan when fresh out of the icy water, believe me.
  Driving to Ashland and back yesterday afternoon, I saw a large deer, killed on Hwy. 13. This happened between 2:15 and 4:15 PM, an odd time and place.  This is the first deer I have seen, alive or dead, since the end of deer season last November.  Deer are few and far between in the north woods, and this brutal winter is not helping.
   There has been a lot of activity at the bird feeder, and this mourning dove looks fat and happy.  I have been seeing and hearing piliated woodpeckers in the neighborhood, drumming on trees and telephone poles and calling raucously to one another.