Have you noticed how much brighter it seems outdoors once the snow covers the ground and the branches of the trees? I notice it especially at night, when the lights are off in the house, it seems lighter outside the windows, even on the moonless nights. Judy Byykkonen’s photos from her walk with the “girls”, illustrates that quite well, at least compared to the drab, gray of fall days, when all the leaves have fallen. Judy found plenty of snow and places for her dogs to run on the outskirts of Laurium, which is handy when the weather isn’t cooperating to load them up in her vehicle and head to the Lake. The snow-covered pup in the last two photos is Miss Elaine, her daughter’s curly doodle who was visiting for Thanksgiving.

The critters seem to enjoy the winter weather in today’s video from Voyageurs Wolf Project, as they pass by on a wildlife trail. Great footage to see the animals up close.

Even way down here in Milwaukee it is pitch black at
night. BUT when we have snow on the ground you can
almost read a newspaper it is so bright. And snow
even makes an ugly city pretty. Just not as pretty
as anyplace in da Yoop.

Judy is the best dog mom. She's
always putting their needs first.
Though, I'm sure it's also
beneficial for her to have them
worn out, lol. And Elaine fits
right in with her 3. Awesome
pictures, Judy.

And yes, I used to have to turn
the outside light on to see if we
had critters in the yard. Now you
can just look out there and
they're quite visible without the
light.

It's a beautiful time of year....snow is beautiful,
yes it's work..but it's also traction (hit the snow
when it's icy) it's insulation (I used to bank
everywhere I lived, and it holds in your heat...you
gotta do it more than once during the season, but
it works) and it's just beautiful.

I loved that video...love wolves and that cat is so
beautiful! Look at the size of those paws! Wow!!

Very nice set! And the video was fantastic.
I was waiting for a critter to take a bite out
of the video cam.

That Wolf Project run by the Univ of Minnesota has
discovered a lot of neat things about wolves. Did
you know they fish? They eat blueberries. They help
keep the beaver population in check around the park
as well. They ambush them when they leave the water
to cut down trees. The project has provided a lot
of neat videos similar to the one you see here.
Turns out they not only survive on deer and cattle
like everyone always thought.

AND, I watched a vid today, they introduced 15
Canadian Wolves to Yellowstone, brought back the
ecology and all...Wolves are awesome critters! The
name of the vid on you tube:

U.S. Releases 14 Canadian Wolves Into the Wild and
Saves $94 Billion
by Wild Versus. Just incredible.

Very nice! And Miss Elaine is so cute! In the vid is the first critter a pine marten? A fisher?