There were also numerous hooded mergansers, surely one of the most exquisite little ducks around! Here you can see both males (with the white head) and females.

I've been trying to capture birds and animals feeding on different wild food sources. Today it was mostly crabapples, birch and Manitoba maples on the menu, and of course walnuts!

and mushroom hung up to dry (squirrels, just like humans, find mushrooms a delicacy, and they often dry them by hanging them in trees and shrubs).

Finally, a couple photos of yet another lovely little fungi, this one called Plicaturopsis crispa. It is very small, very common and quite pretty.

Ooops, I called this Panellus crispa, but as was correctly pointed out (thank you!), this is Plicaturopsis crispa as I should have known, because I had added it to the Fungi gallery, under its proper name.

The cool, damp weather didn't deter birds and mammals at the FWG where there was a lot of activity. Robins, cardinals, chickadees, mourning doves,starlings, goldfinches, house finches, were there in good numbers, while there were smaller numbers of downy woodpecker (2), hairy woodpecker (1), dark-eyed junco (2), house sparrow (3), and red-winged blackbird (1)

There was even an insect, a winter moth, usually called Bruce spanworm,(Operophtera bruceata) fluttering around (and several of them on the farm yesterday). I thank Diane Lepage for identifying this moth for me from a photo taken in Larose Forest the other day. I've now seen them in about 4 different locations, including FWG, and Diane tells me they are quite common in late fall-early winter. This photo is from Larose as it is better than the one I took today