The weekend brought an end to the warm weather and a major rainstorm as well. Fortunately, the forecasted floods generally did not occur. I was a little concerned about our house being at risk, given how close we are to the pond and the amount of snow on the ground, but the house stayed dry.

We are beginning to see some open water on the ponds. Mill Pond, which is just a mile away has some significant open water where Rocky Pond Brook enters. Over the course of the last few days I've seen American Black Ducks (a first for me), Hooded Mergansers (a favorite) and a Great Blue Heron. Even our pond show a little bit of open water where West Rocky Pond Brook enters, and I've seen a pair of Hooded Mergansers (no good pictures yet) and an American Beaver.
American BeaverIt has been rather unafraid of us so far, not responding to noise from cars, garage doors, or me crunching around on the snow plow-created iceberg at the end of our driveway while trying to capture a good image of it.

The beaver has been here two days in a row. Tomorrow after work I'll try to sneak in to the edge of the pond, preferably before it shows up, to get some real close-up images. I wonder if it will notice me hiding under my portable, camouflaged blind...