These vivid red cones are yet another winter brightener. They are also an important food source for birds and squirrels. Not only do birds eat the seeds, but some, such as chickadees, probe the flowerheads for insect eggs and cocoons. Squirrels often chew off the 'cones' and stash them in forks of trees.

Another way to add colour to a winter day... seek out the remaining crabapples for your photo, as Barry did. The ornamental crabapples at FWG are of many varieties, and have been there, for the most part, since the 1960's. SOme are now dying off, others are still thriving. Most provide food for wildlife, but there are some, evidently bred to be unpalatable to birds and others, that retain their fruit all winter long, not a one eaten by a bird or a squirrel.

The season's first snowfall looks very pretty in this photo by Barry. Most of the snow has now melted, but not all... and more to come soon, I'm betting.

A quite interesting composition to this photo by Barry, of the male cardinal at the bird feeder. Winter is the time when you begin seeing cardinals in small flocks, rather than in ones and twos. One winter, we regularly had a flock of about 8 around the garden, but since those days, flocks of 3 to 5 are more common. "Flock" seems an incorrect word for such a small number, perhaps I should say a group of...

Barry was out photographing at the garden, when he spied this beautiful white-throated sparrow and obtained this excellent photo. Most of these sparrows have moved through but the occasional one still lingers.

Winter is the time when red squirrels are most easily observed. Less wary than during breeding season, when they have young to protect, they are now out and about, focused on gathering food, eating food, and protecting food! You'll see sumac cones, crabapples, mushrooms, walnuts, etc. stashed in forks of trees, piled on the ground, piled in cavities (where a tree is big enough.... one large walnut tree in the Arboretum every year has a massive cache of walnuts about 10 feet above the ground in a cavity). Barry took this pretty photo.

At this time of year, the male house finches stand out against the leafless trees, with their vivid red plumage. Barry took this photo for us.

This little fat squirrel had been rooting in the snow but jumped onto this post in the Backyard Garden when I came along. A little dab of snow is the only evidence of his activity!

The waxwing was eating juniper berries, when the female house finch flew in for a few seconds. The waxwing was undisturbed and continued sitting there while the rest of the flock gathered in the black locust trees nearby. I counted only about 10 this morning, a far cry from the 100+ of last week. However, in the ash woods, there was another flock of about 40. Also around today were cardinals, a common raven flying low over the ravine, a few juncos, two hairy woodpeckers in the ash woods, a white-breasted nutchatch, couple of goldfinches, crows, a bluejay trying to balance on the feeder in the BYG, and of course, many black-capped chickadees.

This mushroom was hanging from the hole in the trunk of the manitoba maple.

This wasp was bumbling along the south facing wall of the interpretive centre today at noon. It didn't seem to be all that strong and flew weakly. I also saw honey bees, clusters of tiny midges, and a few flies, no idea which species as they never landed. It was a mild, sunny day, at +8, and I guess any insects still alive and not dead or hibernating were taking advantage of it.

A couple of mergansers sitting on an exposed rock in the canal where the water is low in preparation for skating season. I think this is the same rock I saw red-breasted mergansers sitting on a few years ago. Although taken in the Arboretum, I include it for those who might want to include the Arboretum in their birding forays. Hooded mergansers, common mergansers, cormorants, Canada geese and mallards are also in the canal at the moment. Gillian tells me that she saw 4 ruddy ducks at Dow's Lake on 12 November, even more reason to check out the canal/Dow's lake area over the next while.

A lone pine grosbeak was feeding near the big flock of bohemian waxwings in the Arboretum.

Against the deep blue sky of this lovely day, the waxwing's distinctive cinnamon coloured undertail coverts are noticeable.

Another plant in the Butterfly Meadow that is fading as the frosty temperatures kill off the last of the blossoms for this year.

In addition to the ubiquitous, but always welcome, chickadees, there were a couple of white-breasted nuthatches and downy woodpeckers around, as well as cardinals. But I saw few other birds, although I was not focused on looking for birds.

You can always rely on lots of chickadees flocking to the feeders! And sometimes they perch long enough for a photo.

One of the nest boxes that Claudia and I cleaned out today, contained four little mice. Probably they are white-footed mice, but deer mice look almost identical. At one point three of them clung to the back of the nest box, peering out after I opened the box to check it. I left the four in their winter nest as no birds showed any interest in this nest box all spring and summer, and it remained empty until autumn when these guys took over.

Long clusters of wild grapes were dangling from this particular tree. In other locations, the grapes have already been eaten. These won't last long as a number of species find them tasty.