While I occasionally see Common Mergansers in Lake Ontario at this time of year, the red-breasted variety is much more common. However in rivers like the Humber, you are much more likely to see Common Mergansers as we did today on this cloudy, -6 degree morning.

Species list: Canada goose, mallard,  common merganser, common goldeneye,  mourning dove, red-bellied woodpecker, hairy woodpecker, downy woodpecker, blue jay, American crow, black-capped chickadee, white-breasted nuthatch, American robin, house sparrow, house finch, European starling, northern cardinal,  American goldfinch, dark-eyed junco. (19 species)

Some botany:

Park views:

Yesterday I mentioned that woodland trails can be icy at this time of year. Many were this morning:

Several of the group came equipped with “grippers.”

This morning’s group:

NATURE POETRY

Late lies the wintry sun a-bed,
A frosty, fiery sleepy-head;
Blinks but an hour or two; and then,
A blood-red orange, sets again.      – Robert Louis Stevenson (1850–94)

Miles Hearn