Winter Walking In Nature

Taking a family walk along the waters edge and look what we found - a family of beavers

We love getting 'out of doors' in the winter - just going for a short walk will help a case of cabin fever. We were lucky to come upon a family of beavers hard at work at a pond near our house the other day.
Here are some of the images that we wanted to share.

It was wonderful to have this moment with our family - the beavers didn't even seem bothered that we had our dog with us - they obviously had work to do.
Having a nature encounter like this was a perfect conversation starter for the whole family. It quickly turned into an adventure:

• Where is their lodge?
• How come there is no ice there?
• How many do you think there are?
• Do they get cold?
• Are they eating the wood? Are they building with it?
• Did they cut that tree down? How?

When we got home I dug out some of my nature books and as luck would have it I had a copy of Beaver Stream by Marilyn F. Holmer. This book has wonderful illustrations and if I didn't know better it could have been written about the pond near our house.

Parks and nature trails look so very different in the winter months. Bundle up and go exploring - you might be surprised just how different a familiar place looks in the winter months. Happy trails!