A rare weather event has coated our area with white. The snow sneaked in last night under cover to greet us this morning with its bitter cold backdrop. Brad Williams, one of the staff at River Park, called me early to say the Park was covered, so I decided to spend the morning trying to capture the impact on the critters there. I am not used to the white cover and the scene was actually quite erie even though very pretty. It was cold!!! Taking pictures with gloves on is a real challenge! I was cozy in my long-handles and big coat. I noticed that the birds did not seem to mind and were very active. I suppose they were hustling about to get enough food to keep from freezing tonight when the low temp will be in the teens! They were not quite as wary as usual and made getting some "snowbird" pics reasonably easy. There were many species present including Ring-neck gulls, bald eagles, red-tailed hawks, golden crowned kinglets, carolina chicadees, juncos, robins, titmouse, carolina wrens, white-throated sparrows, swamp sparrows, towhees, cardinals, Blue herons, Great Egrets, mallards, mergansers, crows, and more. I did get a pic of a hermit thrush, which I mis-identified as a Wood thrush until Howard Vainright corrected me!! It is the last picture below. The eagles and hawks were circling the ponds looking for an easy meal. There were about 500 gulls in the ponds. So there were plenty photo challenges. I tried to get pics showing the birds relative to the snow. It was a great way to spend the morning--I felt like I had visited a strange land---I hope the pics reflect the winter mood of the Park---
RSS Feed