To See What You Can't See

It's been a busy weekend, but I did get a couple chances to slip over to Great Meadows, between projects, tasks and planned activities. This morning when I awoke the view out the window was grey fog. I thought there must be some interesting photos to be had in the fog.

Some quick mental calculations yielded that if I hurried, I could get in a quick half hour of photography before heading to church. So here is the best that I could capture in that 30 minutes.



Looking back up the drive. I love that S curve.


The woods slowly transition to grey


A different view of my most frequent photo


A spot to contemplate, what you can't see in the impoundments


The towering oaks form the gateway to the parking lot


The closer you got to the impoundments, the more restricted your visibility and fewer interesting shadows on your horizon.


Most of the geese were grounded


A few geese must be IFR capable




The cool damp fog, covered the cobwebs with dew. On a normal day, if you are standing at the right angle you can often see the silk threads shining in the sun. Covered with dew, you realize that they blanket most all the plants on the dike.


Evening Primrose


Vervain


The perfect spider web

Not on the Honey-Do List

It's only a matter of before outdoor photography will require multiple layers, heavy coats, boots, gloves, hand warmers and frequent battery changes. Since Saturday was going to be unseasonably warm, how can one sleep in? With a schedule of several "Honey-Do" tasks awaiting me, I had to get up early to sneak in a little photography.

With my limited time, my strategy was a quick out and back to Borden's pond to see what was going on. Primarily there were the usual suspects, but a couple of things caught my eye.






I can't believe how the goose in their path continues to eat through the entire sequence




A group of gulls flew by


With toes like that, the itch will not stand a chance








I love the way the back lighting brings out the details

Thanksgiving Potpourri

Knowing that most of this weekend would be preoccupied with Thanksgiving traditions including eating, raking leaves, cleaning gutters, and making final preparations to the house to face winter, I went to Great Meadows late Monday afternoon to bank a few shots that I could share over the weekend.

It was a quiet day at the refuge. Here are a few of the things that caught my eye.


The fallen tree near the parking lot. All year I've looked at this tree and tried to think how I could photograph it. Today it hit me, to photograph it from the side.


The mysterious, "UFO Landing spot" of crushed reeds near the kiosk. Perhaps this was caused by snow blowing off the trees near by during the snow storm. Supporting that theory is that the reeds are all bent in the same direction.

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Chickadee in the trees near the kiosk


Coot Stretching


Muskrat heading home towards the setting sun


What Mute Swans like to eat


I love the water drops frozen in space


Sparrow along the path


Sparrow in the cattails facing the setting sun


Dike Trail light up in the setting sun


Another tree I've liked, but never got the right photo, until today. The reflected setting sun makes the difference.


Sunset viewed from the end of the lower impoundment