Fort Snelling White Tailed Deer

After tennis and some lunch, I decided to take advantage of a nice winter day and go to Fort Snelling State Park. There is quite a bit of activity in the park on weekends, especially when the temperature is in the teens and there is new snow on the ground. The cross country skiers and snowshoers are out enjoying the day. There are a few walkers, including a substantial herd of white tailed deer and me. I counted at least 12 deer in my hour and a half or so in the state park. This one I walked up to on Pike Island and it continued to graze on whatever was sticking up above the snow. The snow is deep, so there were groups of deer standing around in partially plowed parking areas, too, chewing their cuds. Do white tailed deer chew cuds?

This may be the same deer, but it is some distance further away and walking through the deeper snow. It wasn't scared of me at all, either.

This a view looking up at the historic fort from down in the river valley. The sun is very low in the sky because it was after four o'clock, and the sun sets early in Minnesota in January. There is substantial snow cover as you can see. My favorite weather web site reported 51.7 inches of snow for the season thus far in St. Paul, just a bit more than a normal snowfall for the full winter season.

The moon is visible through the trees and is set off against the deep blue sky. Have I mentioned that the sky is very, very blue when the air is cold? It was again today. A pretty day to be hiking around in the snow.

My tennis log is getting filled up. Today was my fourth day of the week on the courts and, although I definitely felt some fatigue before we began playing this morning at Wooddale, the hot tea and ibu that I took in at home before I played, took effect and I managed to play well enough to compete. By the time we finished, I was feeling young again.