Ice Capades

Monday morning was sunny and cold. The winds were not scheduled to arrive until late in the morning. Hoping that the cold temperatures, had frozen part of the impoundments and brought birds closer to shore; I bundled up and headed to Great Meadows with my long lens.

Arriving at the refuge, I discovered that the overnight temperatures had been too effective and the impoundments had totally iced over. The ducks had departed to the river, leaving the impoundments to the Canada Geese and the American Coots.

While geese were content to sit upon the ice, until their scheduled departure time; the coots were much more interesting. There were several large groups and a steady stream of coots walking between the groups headed from the far end of the upper impoundment towards the lower impoundment.

Like a person in street shoes trying to cross a hockey rink; walking on ice is a task that coots are singularly ill suited to accomplish. Either they would have difficulties getting going, or once going they could hardly stop. Enjoy this brief video of them in action.



I was sort of hoping that the eagle would stop by, because that would have been a dramatic photographic opportunity. However, I did feel sad for the coots huddling together, trying to stay warm; while suddenly locked out of their food pantry. In the end I was glad the eagle didn't appear.



If you don't like coots, you can stop now. However, since today was so different. I tried to enjoy capturing them as they dealt with the icy conditions.












Notice the ice crystals on some of their backs. Is this frozen from some of their last dives?


After a while the purpose of their walking became obvious. They were in search of open water and food. The migration continued to the edge of the Cross Dike Trail. Unfortunately, the passing joggers scared them back into the upper impoundment. Finally they prevailed.












As Will pointed out the Coots are more like Rails than Ducks because they preferred to walk rather than fly. Late in the morning the wind started to pick up and they were forced to fly more. This provided some rare photos of them in flight.










Maintaining their footing was especially challenging between the slippery ice and the forceful gusty winds.








The temperature warmed ever so slightly opening some water in the lower impoundment. A group of coots discovered that the water was still flowing under the Cross Dike Trail bridge. I almost didn't want to bother them, but after getting some close up photos, I had to pass over the bridge on last time to head home.

One Cold Day

The weather report for the beginning of the week looks less than ideal for photography. Today was supposed to be sunny, but cold. The overnight low of 19F was sure to bring ice to the impoundments. So I made my plans to wake up before dawn, dash to the refuge for a little photography, and then dash back home to change and head to church.

I should know better than trust a weather forecast. When I arrived at Great Meadows at sunrise, they had gotten the cold part right, very right; but rather than clear skies there was a lot of broken cloud cover.


Parts of the lower impoundment were frozen, with wind blown patterns


Elsewhere it was a mix of ice and open water



It was so cold, you wanted to get out of the shade into the sunny portion of the refuge. Of course that means shooting back into the sun. So here are a few silhouettes.






Suddenly the light started to get better as the sun started to peak out from the clouds which were starting to break up. With an interesting sky, I found a place to catch that reflecting back in the impoundment. Do you like the portrait (first) or landscape (second) better?






Near the outflow of the lower impoundment, there was a group of Canada Geese and American Coots hugging the lee side of the reeds. Intermixed among them, were some Ring-necked Ducks.








Though I have lots of Canada Geese photos, you have to shoot something to make the finger numbing, bone chilling walk in the cold worth while. Several groups departed quite close to where I was standing, so I got some nice tight shots of geese in flight.




The Canadian Snowbirds don't fly patterns this tight


Watching geese preen can be entertaining. But with such cold temperatures, I wasn't going to stick around for a lot of these type photos.






In spite of blasting the heater on the way home and a hot shower, I only started to feel warm towards the end of the sermon. I remember some cold days last winter, but none quite this painful.

Refuge As Art Museum

Thursday morning I got up to join Alan and Will on the weekly bird census. I did bring my camera, but my focus was improving seeing and identifying birds. The weather was gray and cold, with rain due imminently.

As we walked along the impoundment, one thing I noticed was the remains of bird nests along the trail. I had walked next to several of these many times and never noticed the nest. I guess my skills of observation have room for improvement. I'll have to make a mental note to check these locations next year.







The predominate color in the refuge is brown. That's why anything green stands out. It's amazing that the muskrats can find green stalks below the water.





Over the course of this year, I've noticed small piles of rocks, popping up around the refuge. I wondered about the story behind why they were there & who was creating them. Since it was such a mystery, I hadn't taken photos of them before. Here are some examples that I noticed on our walk today.










Well this week Tom Hart, the artist / curator of these exhibits shared the story behind these works of art and how he started making small these piles of rocks in the Great Meadows google group.

As we walked around the refuge, I also notice a few art installations created by Nature, herself. Hope you enjoy them also.


I love the way the leaf, is positioned in relation to the curves of the grain in the wood


The combination of fungi and the burl forms a natural face