Walk on the river

The Common Redpolls have taken over my feeders making me fill them more often than I want to, Getting very expensive because they like the shelled seeds and waste a lot.
Took a walk along the river this morning in -16 temps with a wind chill of about -20. I was hoping to see an American Dipper for my year list but no luck. Did see some Common Merganser
I also spotted some Common Goldeneye mixed groups. managed a few poor shots of them.
The river ice can be quite unpredictable with changing temps, sometime giving you a rude surprise. I don't know if the people making these tracks were on the ice when it broke off or not, if they were they got a little surprise. The river was quite cold with a bit of a wind blowing and everywhere there was calm waters it was frozen. The open areas looked very cold but the birds are ok as long as they can find enough to eat.

It got down to -18c last night after a couple of weeks of unseasonably warm weather. One of my chores for today was filling the woodbox, so I decided to do it in one load. This is an engineering masterpiece even if I do say so myself.
My feeders are very busy right now with the cold temps. I have Evening and Pine Grossbeaks, Many Common Redpolls 50+, lots of Black-capped Chickadees, Red-breasted nuthatch, Downy, Hairy and Piliated Woodpeckers and of course the Common Magpies coming to steal the beef fat I put in the suet feeders. WE only have about 15cm of snow on the ground compared to about 80cm we had at this time last year which makes foraging for food a little easier for the birds.
On my walk today there were many animal tracks on the road including Mouse, Weasel, Martin Squirrel,Snowshoe Hare, Coyote, wolf, Deer, Moose and of course Ruffed Grouse. The walk was brisk with about -8 temp, clear skys and bright sunshine Made photography a challenge with the snow fooling the exposure meter.