Category Archives: Nature Photos

Evening

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A view of the lake at sunset

The sky puts on the darkening blue coat
held for it by a row of ancient trees;
you watch: and the lands grow distant in your sight,
one journeying to heaven and one that falls;

and leave you not at home in either one,
not quite so still and dark as the darkened houses,
not calling to eternity with the passion
of what becomes a star each night, and rises;

and leave you (inexpressibly to unravel)
your life, with its immensity and fear,
so that, now bounded, now immeasurable,
it is alternately stone in you and star.

— Rainer Maria Rilke, “Evening” from The Selected Poetry of Rainer Maria Rilke as translated by Stephen Mitchell

Finally gotcha

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I’ve been taking photos at the lake for some time and have never been able to digitally capture any presentable images of the double-crested cormorants (Phalacrocorax auritus) that make this place their home.  The birds tend to stay too far away from my most common haunts, so imagine my surprise when my most recent walk afforded me an opportunity to see them near shore instead of perched in the middle of the lake.

Double-crested cormorants (Phalacrocorax auritus) resting in the top of a tree near shore

As you can see, they were congregating on the top limbs of a sleeping tree.  You’ll also notice the tree leans out over the water from its place on shore.  As luck would have it, the cormorants stayed mostly in the topmost branches that hung out over the water.  That made for a difficult time getting a clear view of them behind the other branches—and without forcing me to wade into the shallows.  Still, I was able to get a few reasonable images.

Double-crested cormorants (Phalacrocorax auritus) resting in the top of a tree near shore

These birds are raucous beasts.  What I found most interesting was this: they get quite loud when a cormorant flies into the tree where they’re sitting.  Never mind that the tree is already full of cormorants, many of them quite near each other.

Two double-crested cormorants (Phalacrocorax auritus) sitting on a branch looking at each other

They seem to take turns flying out into the water before returning to the tree.  As I watched, one would fly up and perch in the top branches, and immediately another one would fly out over the lake.  When that bird returned, another would leave.

One particular cormorant resting alone out on a branch stood for the longest time with one of its legs tucked up near its body.  The whole one-legged perch was entertaining to see as it switched legs twice while I watched.

A double-crested cormorant (Phalacrocorax auritus) perched on a limb

Finally, before I left, these two hanging way out over the water seemed to be involved in synchronized observation.  They constantly turned their heads in unison and almost always in the same direction.

Two double-crested cormorants (Phalacrocorax auritus) perched on a limb

Do let me apologize that the photos aren’t better quality than they are.  Because I either had to shoot up through branches or back far away from the tree to get a clear shot most of the time, I never got close enough to the birds for hi-res photos.  Also, I was trying not to disturb them as they watched me closely while I milled about beneath them.

And that brings me to the last reason I didn’t get closer.  Have you ever watched the mess cormorants make while they’re perched in a tree?  I assure you it was like watching some kind of carpet bombing.  No matter how much I wanted to get a good picture or two, nothing could have convinced me to walk beneath that tree for a closer look!

Placidity

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Two scenes taken yesterday from the lake’s opposite poles.

From a pier at the north end looking due south:

Standing on a northern pier at the lake looking due south

Mostly what you see are American coots (Fulica americana) along with a few ring-billed gulls (Larus delawarensis) in the distance.  With no clouds and no wind, an ozone haze lay heavily on the surface.  That’s what you see on the horizon.

From the spillway at the southwest end looking northeast:

Standing on the spillway at the southwest end of the look looking northwest across the water

The white specks in the middle of the water and on the left are American white pelicans (Pelecanus erythrorhynchos).

Splendid day for a walk, eh?

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A cloudless sky overhead and windless air resting heavily on the earth, today provided a wonderful excuse to enjoy a long walk.  Temperatures hovered around 54° F (12° C) by the time I left home at 10:30 this morn.  Despite a blanket of haze draped over the world from too much sun, too little wind, and way too many humans, I found myself lost in the roaming, adrift for hours as I floated around the lake from spot to spot.

I had my camera with me but did not focus on photography.  My mind wandered to and fro just as my body did.  Nevertheless, I returned to the spot where I started with a healthy load of pictures.  I’ll share some of them here and will share others in the future.

As I crossed the new footbridge spanning the north point of the lake, I found myself beguiled with an ordinary sight in these parts: a kayak and its operator making their way from shore to deeper waters.

A lone kayak and its pilot heading across the lake

Even the ripples he sent out with his activity could not disturb the stillness.  Try though he might, his impact remained small, much as he seemed as he pressed further on, further ahead, and away.

A lone kayak and its pilot heading across the lake

Nature seemed intent on muffling his disturbance.  His diligent paddling caused little upset to the serenity carefully placed around us.

Like the distant shore cloaked in climate’s shroud, I watched as the kayak became a blur and more mundane as it moved away.  With no wind to displace the contaminants that hung heavy in the air, things far became things obscured, and eventually, in the distance, clumsy brush strokes ruined the painting altogether.  What a shame…

So I continued on my way.

The smallest of things intrigued me, I found.  My feet carried me along the shore as my eyes feasted on this and that.  Ay, plenty of wildlife was to be seen, yet I felt no compulsion to focus on it.  Instead, I focused on the moment, on being in that place.

Large stones near shore as they rest in still waters

Nothing seemed to disturb the watery vista laid carefully before me.  I could find little evidence of waves on this day.  The calm tranquility filled me to the core.  I felt like a reed held gently by motionless hands.

Reeds sitting idle in motionless water

No matter how far I walked—and it was quite far—I never felt rushed.  With too many souls to count busying themselves with this and that, hurrying to grab a bit of exercise or to try enjoying a rushed meal, I walked among them invisible and silent.  They appeared alien to me.  What a waste of a glorious opportunity to enjoy being instead of doing.  To enjoy reflecting…

A close-up of reeds nestled in calm water

The silence of snow :: We too have our thaws

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We too have our thaws. They come to our January moods, when our ice cracks, and our sluices break loose. Thought that was frozen up under stern experience gushes forth in feeling and expression. There is a freshet which carries away dams of accumulated ice. Our thoughts hide unexpressed, like the buds under their downy or resinous scales; they would hardly keep a partridge from starving. If you would know what are my winter thoughts look for them in the partridge’s crop. They are like the laurel buds,—some leaf, some blossom buds,—which, though food for such indigenous creatures, will not expand into leaves and flowers until summer comes.

— Henry David Thoreau

The footbridge, creek, and trees covered with snow
A close-up of the creek with snow covering its banks and falling against its dark background
The tree line painted with a heavy coat of snow
Looking over the footbridge handrail along the creek bed and toward a building hidden amongst the trees, all of it covered by heavy snow