[music playing] Hi.

I'm Alex.

Welcome to another episode of A Season at Shaver's Creek.

Now we're moving into our second winter, which was a particularly hard winter.

And because of that, we saw most of our activity around Shaver's Creek itself, where there was still access to water for a lot of animals that really needed it through the winter.

Let's take a look at what we saw.

Now, before we actually had the hard freeze this winter, Shaver's Creek was still flowing and open for our wildlife to navigate, like these deer.

Now, about 1000 feet upstream from Lake Perez is this group of fallen logs.

Our local mink is thoroughly searching every crevice around this log structure, because there can be a lot of potential food hiding away in all of the little nooks and crannies of these little fallen logs.

Now, the logs provided a bit more of an obstacle for this deer, and I'm more used to seeing them leap over things that are in their way, and it looked like a far less comfortable method of navigating the logs for this deer.

Now we find ourselves just a bit downstream from those fallen logs, where you can see the water level in late November here was a little bit low-- and this wood duck is partially swimming and partially walking its way upstream through these shallow sections.

We got to see this little Carolina wren hopping from rock to rock, probably searching for any little invertebrates that might be taking shelter in the exposed rocks that are still above the waterline.

With the harsh cold this winter brought, it can be difficult for animals to find unfrozen water to drink.

Because shaver's creek is still flowing underneath, it's helped keep a few patches of unfrozen water, which these white-tailed deer are happy to take advantage of.

Similarly, it can be difficult to hunt fish when they're hidden under thick ice.

But fortunately, this Heron took its chance successfully on that same little watering hole.

They're such patient birds.

I'm always so impressed by their skill and precision.

And we've seen herons catching fish in previous episodes, but this was the first time we were able to see it actually eat its prey.

And I thought it was kind of neat to see the fish wiggling on the way down the Heron's throat as it was swallowing.

Now, once a bit of that ice thawed, we were able to see this mink in the same spot surveying the creek and searching across the bank for any little morsels it can find along there.

Now bobcats are such agile animals-- and they're so cautious when they're out hunting.

One thing that I thought was really neat about this clip is you can see the way their back foot steps perfectly into the track that they leave from their front foot when they're walking.

And this movement is called a direct register or sometimes perfect stepping.

And it makes them move in a way that the tracks look like they were left by something bipedal, like us walking.

And it helps them reduce the amount of sound when they're walking-- just making them a little more stealthy as they move.

Now here at our third camera location-- only about 100 feet further downstream on Shaver's Creek, we find another log bridge crossing the stream that provides easy passage for a lot of different wildlife.

I really enjoy watching the way that rabbits' ears are constantly turning and moving as they're listening to their surroundings for potential predators.

Now we can see something that this one's hearing across the log seems to make it a little bit uneasy about crossing the full way.

Now even tiny mice use this log as a bridge.

It's a much safer route than trying to swim across the stream beneath.

It was really nice to see this snowy winter scene with a squirrel carrying a nut across this natural bridge.

This pileated woodpecker is finding a quick snack behind the log there.

The berries that are in the shrubs nearby seem to be providing a quick and easy meal that really doesn't require any hammering away at the nearby trees.

Now this was the only spot that we saw our red fox this winter.

And I'm always impressed by how surefooted these canines are, especially this one crossing this structure in the dark.

Now after traveling all the way downstream, we find ourselves at the other side of the environmental center where we caught this very pleasant wintry scene of one of our deer herds passing through hawk's view meadow.

Thanks for joining us for another episode of a season at Shaver's Creek.

We've got a lot of great upcoming programming at the environmental center.

So check out our website for more information on that.

And we'll be seeing you again next season.

Until then, never stop discovering.

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