Ice

I went hiking Tuesday morning and after much sliding around (trails have been iced over for a while now) found some things to photograph. Since we haven't had new snow in a while the snow is starting to look a little messy. Fallen leaves and branches litter the trails. As it has been warmer for the last few days items have been melting and refreezing into the trails. leading to ice encased leaves. If I got out earlier I might have seen frost details, but by the time I was out it had melted down a bit. Read More about my hike at Wild into Suburbia.

Daily Photo - Icicle

More snow tonight, while what we have is hanging on quite tenaciously.

Daily Photo - More Ice

From Moose Hill.

Broadmoor Footprints and Ice

It was cold and clear Thursday morning this week and I managed to finally go two places in a week. A light snow fell Wednesday. A nice shallow sticky snow, so I found lots of nice footprints Thursday.

Fox Track

Confusing Bird tracks

Raccoon Tracks, there were tons of these all across the Charles River crisscrossing back and forth. I really liked the patterns of snow over the roots. The sunlight coming from behind was just a bonus. I have no idea what these are the tracks of, but they were maybe the size of my fingertips. There weren't many around the rock, so I'm not really sure where the critter came from but they really liked this rock. Most of the trails had a light cover of snow but under that was a sheet of ice in many places. The locations of the ice were kind of random, so there was plenty of sudden slipping. In the field around the wildlife pond I keep seeing red tailed hawks overlooking the pond. Thursday there was only one, often I've seen two. Most of the time they get chased off by blue jays before I get close enough to even really see them. I'm still deciding what my next lens will be. The above is as close as I could get to a hawk. I expect I'm not going to be getting much closer to one. The above was fully zoomed with my 250 mm lens. The hawk still looks like a little white smear. Even if I get a new 200 mm zoom, that would be able to take pics at f/4, rather than having to stop down to f/8 to get good shots, getting close would still be a problem. If I can't get closer to the subject a better lens won't help. The waterfalls are nicely frozen. One is now frozen completely over. It didn't occur to me for a few hours that I completely forgot to use my polarizer for the water. I had plenty of fun, though I didn't actually see many critters.

Moose Hill Ice

The creek near the ovenbird trail was frozen yesterday. Well, the surface of it was.

Daily Photo - Ice

Pattern in a frozen creek at Moose Hill.

Daily Photo - Ice

A break from the birds, unless I get a really good blue jay pic.

Daniel Webster - From 1/6/10

Dawn to 9 AM Daniel Webster.

A Hawk Landed on My Head Today!!!

Well, it may have been a Merlin, I didn't manage to get a picture. Anyway. I went to Broadmoor this morning since I didn't have to be at work early today. It was freaking cold, 19 degrees or something and windy. I meandered a little, found some ice, and the mostly frozen river and noticed the spillway under a water fall I like got reworked. Only time will tell if they ruined it for photography or not. There also appears to be a new overlook at the wildlife pond, though I didn't explore it. Wandering around I spotted a hawk in a tree quite far off, and circled around to try to see it better. By the time I got there the blue jays had chased it and a friend off. I stayed to try to photograph some birds with some new tips I got about by 55-250 mm lens (f8, Servo Auto focus, shutter speed 1/320 or faster). I stood there for a good 10-15 minutes, very still with the camera up in front of me, snapping images of some sparrowy looking birds. I heard wings, and felt something land on my head, but almost immediately take off. I felt nothing but a light weight settling on my hat then it was gone. I turned around, expecting a blue jay, though I couldn't figure out why one would land on me. I figured if it had been an attack, I would have been pecked, or been whacked with the wings, there also would have been some shrieking as a warning before any dive-bombing. A few feet away at eye level was a tiny raptor, grey or brown and white streaked chest, tiny hooked beak, about the size of a jay. He took off before I could get the camera up. I think he had pointed wings, but the people at the Wildlife Center thought he was a sharp-shinned hawk, since merlins aren't as common this time of year. (Mind you just about anyone I know probably wouldn't have held still if they heard wings that close. My cockatiel has been using my head as a landing platform for years now, and I've become accustomed to freezing so she doesn't miss. Most of my relatives start freaking out when she takes off, which of course in turn freaks her out more.) So apparently in this getup and not moving I look like a very inviting tree stump. Especially since I was about 10 feet away from what I suspect would have been breakfast. I find it extremely funny that on my first day actively birdwatching a hawk landed on my head. I did manage some much, much better pics of small birds, though none were outstanding. A few of my very close to actually focused birds... not too heavily cropped.

American Robin White Throated Sparrow (maybe) Northern Cardinal (female) No idea, it had a little yellow on the top of its head and yellow and black wings. It also sat still almost long enough to focus then would take off again. About the size of the above birds in their original files. Basic tips for the lens included get closer, which I'm not so good at. I bought some thermal pants, so maybe I'll go out again tomorrow.

Finally Some Snow

Nice thick wet snow that was nice enough to stay up for a few hours after sunrise. It didn't do anything to cover the mud in the yard unfortunately, but it was definitely nice on the trees. These range from around 7 am to maybe 8:30 am. I didn't even leave my street or yard for most of these. It was a bit too warm later and it's all melting away now. At least it shouldn't cause nasty Monday traffic.

Ice. Icy, Ice. and a deer...

My walk at Moose Hill on Sunday. I'll add more later. The ice above wasn't directly on water. it was left there from when the marsh was higher. There were several layers until you got water. The trail also did a nice creaking and clinking thing as I moved on it, but it never went more than a half inch under water, so I didn't get wet.