Grey Dawn

After a week's worth of overcast and often rainy skies, I thought that I was overdue to see what was happening at my favorite refuge. Friday morning, I awoke hoping for interesting morning fog.

Arriving at the refuge, instead of morning fog, I found very low ceilings and a grey sky. Today was not a day to be pointing your lens towards the heavens. The water on the impoundments was totally still, reflecting mirror like it's surroundings.

Reviewing my project-to-date images, I realized that I had not recently taken many of the landscape. So I started with my favorite view from the tower and a panorama of the impoundments. From above there still is a lot of brown visible, but from ground level green is predominant. The Cattail Reeds have grown significantly in the past week. With all this water, I wonder how fast they'll grown with a little sun.











It was a quiet day at the refuge. The low ceiling dampening the noises from the neighboring area. Birds were singing. Occasionally, you would hear the splash of a turtle or muskrat as they made their aquatic exit. The quiet would be spoiled by a plane on final for Hanscom. They seemed quite low. I hoped to get a photo of a ghost-like plane, passing the tower, they would never emerge from the clouds.

The sky was like a big soft box, so I started with some portraits of Red Winged Blackbirds and Marsh Wrens. I have so many photos of them, that I'm starting to get fussy. I really worked hard on trying to get pleasing backgrounds. Marsh Wrens continue to frustrate me. I came close to getting a classic photo of a Marsh Wren holding onto two reeds, except ... it was facing the wrong way. The other Marsh Wren photo because it shows something that you might not notice with the naked eye. Marsh Wrens often close their eyes while they are singing!









You always see robins hopping along the paths foraging. I've been hoping for a more picturesque photo to add to the blog. Finally, I encountered this American Robin posing in a tree.


All the rain started to re-flood areas of the forest between the river and the impoundments. I enjoyed the inky black color of the water, which made an interesting background for these young Canada Geese.






Along the lower impoundments, there were these beautiful Bog Violets, still wet with the morning dew (or last night's rain).




At the exit of the lower impoundment, the carp were pooling like crazy. Occasionally, one would attempt to swim into the lower impoundment. They could get up the sluiceway, only to be frustrated by the 5-6 inch jump required to leap over the rocky cascade to reach their objective.







Returning to the parking lot I encountered this very large, unwary Cottontail Rabbit. I slowly maneuvered close to him, trying to eliminate the parking lot from the shot. Towards the end of my time, a chipmunk appeared. The rabbit watched raptly and then suddenly chased it. It was almost like it was hunting it, rather than just being territorial. I don't know if rabbits are really omnivores, rather than being herbivores. I added this to the many other questions that I have to research from my observations at Great Meadows