I was outside a bit ago, and watched the nice clear sky as the late-afternoon temperature was heading down to and below freezing (as has been the case for the last few days) and I was reminded of a story!
Back in December of '09, we were entering into winter weather and, in fact, in the first part of the month, temperatures plummeted into the teens, leading to water all over the place freezing...something that happens occasionally where even the waterfalls ice over, a great photo op!
So, in the middle of this, I came across a notice for birders to meet at the Steigerwald Lake Refuge near the entry to the Columbia River Gorge on the Washington side, east of Camas/Washougal.
The group was going to be led by Ron Escano, a man who is associated with the Fish And Wildlife department as well as the Audobon Society (who "hosted" this meetup).
So, on a below freezing morning in a very cold week, I met Ron and one more guy, and another who caught up with us later, for a cold and somewhat wet two hour hike. I brought a camera, but was too cold to effectively use it. We all had binoculars, though, so we settled with bird-watching.
Anyway, at one point Ron and I were chatting, and he told me a story:
Two weeks before our meetup, when we were in the middle of the "deep freeze", he had visited one of my favorite places for bird photography, the Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge, which is a ways north of here along the Columbia River. Ron told about how the wetlands were all iced over...
And then he described the following scene:
Mallard Ducks, which are one of the species that frequent the area, had been in the ponds prior to them totally freezing over, and had apparently fallen asleep or some such thing, because a lot of them got stuck in the ice...
Well another species that frequents the wetlands, specifically in the late fall and early winter, are Bald Eagles, and Ron said there was a big crowd, there, and were very happily feasting on the frozen-in ducks!
I listened and, wow, envisualizing what that scene would have looked like, my jaw dropped but inside I was "Dang", because I wasn't there with my camera!
Well, that's my story, I hope you all didn't find the "visuals" too, well, unappetizing!
Well, since this is a photography forum, here's a quick shot of our little group. I'm not in it, Ron is the fellow in the middle:
