The weather turned cold this past week and for several days the wind was high. For a second week, the absence of Great Blue Herons is noticeable. However my husband and I walked the boardwalk as usual and had a ducky week there watching the Mallards and Black Ducks.
The salt marsh is home to a flock of mixed ducks these days, since the water is slow to drain out of the marsh due to the dam of seaweed at the mouth of the stream.
Mallards add the most colour to the marsh, the males with their green heads and the females with their beautiful markings.
A pair of Black Ducks have been long term residents of the marsh, but this past few months, they have increased in number as the marsh has flooded.
This smaller duck is not a common sight this late in the season.
Another rare sight here is this hybrid duck, with green marking on the sides of its head and combination of Mallard and Black Duck markings on its body.
The scene from the nearby bridge can look different depending on the cloud cover, the wind and the tide.
These two photos were taken just over a week apart at the same location.
Winter jackets have been moved to the front of the closet this past week. Temperatures in the low single digits now take some getting used to, as the hats and gloves make walking more comfortable. Snow one morning didn’t accumulate but was a reminder of what lies ahead.
Meanwhile, a nearby street which two weeks ago was golden,
has lost much of its glow but kept its character.
Along the boardwalk, many of the trees are leafless now. Only the Tamarack/Larch has any golden colour these days, always later to change than the deciduous leaf-filled trees.
One day this past week, the temperature rose to 16 degrees Celsius among days of 5 degrees. That afternoon my friend Liz and I went for a walk along the beach in the Evangeline area not far from Summerside. Afterward we sat in our chairs on the beach and enjoyed our pumpkin spice coffee, brought in our thermos from home.
We sat near a stream that trickled into the sea which lapped the shoreline. A piece of driftwood was a reminder of the power of the sea. Such a day so late in the season was a pure gift of nature.
And on a colder morning, a Red Squirrel was busy collecting seeds from an evergreen along the way as we walked the boardwalk. Winter preparation is upon all of us!
Have a wonderful week!