Gastro Gnome - Eat Better Wherever

Camera action while being outdoors enjoying the fresh air and adventure. Feel free to add yours too.

Today was a bit of scouting for deer and carrying a the shotgun for grouse. Only flushed one in the thick evergreens and never even got a glimpse of it. Some of today's scenery.

Hunting the rough country these rock features make good pinch points for deer.
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The narrowest beaver pond I have ever seen.
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Almost "hunters orange" fungus.
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It sees me and I see it. What is going to happen next?
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I walk past it to the edge of the lake to see if there are any ducks.
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Yes there was. Hooded Mergansers, Buffleheads, and a Ring-necked Duck. From past experience the rest of the diver species follow the Hooded Mergansers migrating through this area about a week later.

On my return trip from the lake shore, It is no longer afraid of me.
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It allowed me to get within 4 feet to get a photo like this.
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The recent weather has pushed many Dark-eyed Junco from Canada. They are as thick as I have ever seen them here in the UP. Driving on country roads I see hundreds of these a day. This one gave me some good photo opportunity.
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I was wondering what those were, I’ve been seeing a bunch also.
I saw a lot of ducks at about 11:00 AM out over the big lake. Four flocks combined probably added up to close to 200 birds. That was only watching the lake for about 10 minutes. The ducks were staying on the big lake. The other bodies of water that I checked out today were froze up for puddle duck water and the diver water was about half frozen over.
 
Today's waterfowl migration observation was that the Bufflehead was the prominent bird in the area. I saw them in a few locations. This was the closest group that I could get a reasonable picture.
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Today's waterfowl migration observation was that the Bufflehead was the prominent bird in the area. I saw them in a few locations. This was the closest group that I could get a reasonable picture.
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That spot looks familiar, if the Buffs are here winter is not far behind. Saw a whole bunch of snow buntings coming home from the EUP yesterday
 
The weather has moderated and there is very little ice that exists currently. The ducks are holding steady in the area and is kind of atypical for this to be ice free this late in November.
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I walked out to the edge of the lake at hunting camp. I could see 11 Bald Eagles around me. 10 were flying and 1 was sitting for me to get some photos of them. Some thing was going on because the most I have ever seen on this lake at one time is 3. Here are some of the flying eagles.
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The eagle that was not flying and was resting on a offshore stump.
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I was pretty happy getting this many photos to this many eagles. They eventually all left and me leaving wondering why there were so many around.

I got home that night and started working over the photos that I took of these birds. Looking closer of the picture with the bird on the stump I noticed some form of carcass on the big stump next to the eagle. Now I am curious to find out what the mystery animal is.

The next day I returned and brought some waders so I could walk down the shoreline and out into the lake to see what remained in the picture of the carcass from the night before. I saw the red meat so I knew it was not a fish.
 
With the waders on I went out and made the animal identification. IMG_20201210_150952934.jpgIMG_20201210_151027516_HDR.jpg

Now how did a doe end up dead and in the lake? I'm guessing that it broke through some early shoreline ice and drown. Then drifted into this stump area where animals either could get to them or not get to them. There were a lot of coyote tracks on the shoreline too.
 
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