Last Day 2015: More sun, wind, garbage; less water, vegetation

After all the rain (and a little snow) we've had in December, a sunny day is a welcome change.

The last few visits to the Patch have made me realize just how much vegetation cover and fill we lose in the winter.

Open canopy

See-through woods

An effect of that loss is the appearance of a fair amount of trash that was previously obscured by green growing things.  We stuffed two plastic grocery bags with our finds today.

On a more uplifting note, we found the first positive sign that deer use the Patch.

Deer tracks in the mud

Some of the trails were crunchy with ice, but others were just mucky.  I can think of two possibilities: (1) the amount of sun in different locations; or (2) a slight flow in the water vs puddling. A nice benefit of the muddy places is signs of other citizens of the Patch:

Raccoon?

We also found one of my favorite winter fungi:

Orange Jelly fungus

I love the bright color against the browns and greens of a wet winter woods.