Through the Frozen Marshes

Following are a group of pictures, documenting the day of January 15, 2011. It was quite a fun and educational outing for me. I had not planned to go to this area; but because of other circumstances ended up there. It was one of the deer hunting weekends and several places I picked to go, had vehicles parked there; most likely belonging to deer hunters. I did not want to disturb their hunts or to put mys dogs at risk; so it worked out very well; allowing me to visit some low lying marsh areas.

I walked down through a wooded  border area to the low land area. I have walked around these marshes before, but never through them. You would normally be sinking in mud or wading water from a few inches deep to several feet deep. Because of the cold winter weather, I was provided the opportunity to walk through on the ice.

Walking along the edge of a shallow pond.

Shiloh running along the edge of the pond on the snow covered ice.

 I begin my walk into the marshes. This was really neat to be able to do this. My guess is that the water here would be perhaps 2 feet deep, with a very soft mud bottom.

Just a view looking back toward the pond.

These are muskrat houses. As far as I can recall, this is the first time I have been able to examine one close up. I have certainly seen them in the distance, but these in the marsh would not have been visible. The first three pictures are of the same house; with a different house following. These very likely have a chamber inside and an entrance from below the water; a smaller version of a beaver house so to speak. If you double click to enlarge, you may notice urine on the snow cover. This is probably from a coyote or fox marking it's territory...my guess being a coyote. There seem to be many more of those than foxes now.

Emma examing the first house.

As I was traversing the many small channels through the cattails, I noticed an area ahead that appeared to be flattened down; so went to investigate. What I found was an area; appx. 50 yards in diameter; the middle area mostly flattened down, and the edges all bent over....sort of teepee shapes. My guess is that this phenomenom was caused by a very large and strong whirlwind; or a very small tornado funnel. I tried to capture it with the following pictures, but it is difficult to show. It was quite impressive standing in the middle of the circle.

Just out of the marsh area on solid ground, I came across several deer beds. As you can see, their body heat has melted the snow away. These appeared to have been exited from very recently, so they had probably moved along when hearing us approaching.

Some Red Cedars, that the bucks used to rub their antlers.

Deer tracks....

Rabbit tracks..........

Rabbit tracks, deer tracks, coyote tracks, raccoon tracks..........just a major highway!

Coyote tracks...........difficult to really show.....

Last years's nest in the middle of the marsh....

It was interesting, when out of the areas covered with water, that I occasionally came across small pools of open water.....just a few inches deep...with the area all around frozen.......perhaps a spring just below the surface.

Shelf mushroom on side of small tree. I have read that these are edible, but cannot personally verify that.

Just a picture of a cattail. This was taken using the flash, to help it stand out from the background.

Heading back out to my truck, I took a shortcut over the snow covered ice.....again proably no more than a couple of feet deep at most. I would not cross directly over one of these ponds. I did go through the ice years ago when ice skating; into about 3 1/2 feet of water..........very scary..and then about a half mile skate back to the truck. The ice that day was easily 6 inches or more thick, but at the edge of a beaver pond, I crossed over an area that was just an inch or less thick, that the beavers kept thin by entering and leaving.

Back near where I parked, I walked through an old pioneer cemetery. I found this about thirty years ago; and at that time it was just hidden away in the brush, but since that time, has been somewhat cleared out. When there is no snow, there are more markers visible; many laying on the ground, and some just rocks marking graves. Some of the people buried here died in the 1830s.