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.