The weather has been so beautiful lately so we have been taking a lot of walks to our pasture. Max loves it out there and he has a companion, Daisy, for a few weeks.
When we first moved out to this location we had many bluffs of Trembling Aspen/Poplar scattered throughout the land. In the past six years many of these bluffs have accumulated large amounts of water that does not drain away. Hence we have large bluffs of trees that are now dead, still standing in the water, but the trees have all drowned. Once the water freezes thick enough we start exploring these areas, walking amongst all the dead trees observing the various changes that are taking place in the trees. At some point in their decay different types of fungi start growing, woodpeckers peck holes in the trees looking for insects and there are some birds that excavate cavities in the dead trees and raise their young in them. We even found a large egg in one of the cavities.
You can see the frozen water around the base of this tree.
Beautiful fungus
The beavers have also moved into this bluff and have built two huts. The picture above is of all the trees they have taken down over the last couple of years.
The landscape is forever changing and I am sure over time when the water dries up again, the beavers will move on and new trees will grow once again.
A nest cavity perhaps or the birds may hang out in the hole when the weather is at it's worst.
