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Chance encounter
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Chance encounter

My original plans had me viewing the snow covered valley from Grymes Hill at sunrise, but just as I had feared this final open slice of real estate had been fenced off for construction since my last trip there in the fall. I then walked to Wagner college to see if the view from their parking lot overlooking the valley was nice today, but it wasn't all that great. And so with nothing to shoot I climbed up the steep snow covered embankment and headed for the #66 bus that would take me back home and to a nice hot breakfast. But as I cleared the last of the near knee deep snow covered ground onto the shoveled sidewalk, I had a change of heart and decided to cross the icy street to the other side of the road and catch a 66 bus that would take me away from my desired morning repast and head out to Clove Lake instead. I wanted to see what this most recent blizzard turned the sights at the lake into.

After plodding rather difficultly through half the heavily snow covered lake with all my gear, I hadn't found a scenic shot in all this snow that warranted pulling my camera out of my backpack. Well time to head home and start cooking that overdue hot meal for breakfast I decided. But curiosity got the best of me one last time, as I had yet to walk near the babbling brook that flowed from the waterfall that runs here year round. I hadn't done so to this point because the snow and snow drifts lining the entire length of the creek was literally up above your waist. Truly it was an unappealing trek to take on an empty stomach. But the possibility that a nice winter scenic shot of the water running betwixt snow covered rocks may lay hidden behind all that snow somewhere, was too hard for my artistic half to ignore, and I made a left turn off the cleared roadway and plowed into the heavy drift.

When I reached the snow crested view of the brook, I looked up towards the waterfall off to my right as that would be the most likely spot for a nicely composed scene. When I did what should I see but this Great blue heron looking back at me, both of us absolutely froze still at the sight of each other. Many of the wild birds here are so used to the joggers and baby carriages going by that they ignore us and continue to hunt for the fish that inhabit the lake instead. Given that the snow drifts were undisturbed as far as the eye could see, it was obvious he wasn't expecting to see any humans this close to his hunting spot this freezing December morning. After a few minutes of standing perfectly still I concluded that he was at least partially tolerant of humans, maybe not as much as some others I had come across here, but if being this close didn't scare him off that was obviously a really good sign.

I sloooowly let my tripod bag slide down my arm and disappear into the snow. Then turning my head slightly away from him in an attempt to make it think I was interested in something other than him, I kept one eye as best as I could on him while I wriggled my camera backpack off my body and slipped it slowly around the front of me and gently dropped it at my feet [ wherever my feet were under all this snow :) ]. In a slow, slow dance of motion I pulled out my camera and reached for my longest lens. Unfortunately I packed for a trip to capture scenic shots not wildlife, and the longest thing I had with me was my 55-200mm lens. Small and super lightweight it's almost a freebie to stick in a spare empty bit of space in a packed camera bag. I really wish I had my 300mm and my 1.4x teleconverter with me, but this would have to do, assuming the attempt to slowly lift the camera up to my face didn't send it into flight. If it stayed put even this zoom lens was more than enough to get a frame filling shot.

Each movement into my bag and attaching of the lens to camera was separated by long pauses of total motionlessness. When I finally put the camera up to my face I switched the shutter release to it's silent mode, which helps muffle the sound of the camera mirror as you trip the shutter. At this distance any noise like that would kill this opportunity after the first shot. After getting several shots, it cautiously started to walk away form me, and I didn't dare move. Also all this time literally up to my chest in this snow drift had my feet so frozen I couldn't move much anyway. As my increasingly numb fingers reached for my controls I captured a few shots of him as he walked away from me, never totally taking his eye off of me as he did so.

Turning around I packed my gear and headed for the bus stop and my warm home. It might be too late to cook a warm breakfast, but it wasn't too late to load these shots into my photo editor and see if any were good enough to eventually make their way into my nature gallery.

winterStaten IslandClove LakesGreat blue heronbirdsnaturesld1heronsNYCsnow

  • Walking through Silver Lakes park this fall morning, most of the plants along its' shoreline were barren of flowers and leaves, thus provided little color. Naturally that made this group of plants stick out as buds just starting to open are the exception not the rule this time of year. Hardly uncommon, these ubiquitous berries, are probably what separates survival and starving to the local birds that choose to stay here rather than fly south. And sure enough when I looked down a few inches at a nook created by a cluster of branches on this plant, you could see lots of chewed up berry parts, the remnants of a hearty meal for some bird.<br />
<br />
Of all these berry bearing plants strung all over the lake, this was the only one that provided a somewhat interesting compositional opportunity - though the composition is subtle to be sure. With my 105mm micro left home to save space in my tiniest camera bag (I wanted to travel light as I knew I would be walking for hours), in the past I would have had forgo a shot like this, with no way to get magnification this high. But now with my new 17-70mm Sigma DC macro lens finally providing me a optic that was as good at capturing distance shots as it was at capturing macro ones, I finally had a general purpose lens in my arsenal for days just like this.
  • DSC_8600 daisy's in the fall
  • DSC_9071 fall breeze serenity
  • Chance encounter
  • DSC_9663 Heron on a winter morning at Clove lake
  • DSC_9664 Heron on a winter morning at Clove lake
  • This morning, two weeks after taking the three shots to the  left, again I left my house well before dawn to try and capture a sunrise winter scene of the bridge and bay. Again I was unable to get the kind of shot I wanted. Again I got on a bus headed to Clove Lake instead of one headed to my house and a nice hot breakfast. Again I walked the length of the park knee deep in fresh snow, with nothing to  show for it. Again I trudged through the hip high snowdrift by the brook looking for a picturesque scenic shot. Again I ended up frozen to my waste in snow while the same blue heron and I starred surprisingly at the sight of each other.<br />
<br />
This time I was father away from him. So I had to slowly walk closer, stopping every few feet. When I got close as I dared, I started clicking off shots. Then after standing in that snow drift for 20 minutes my slowly freezing fingers and toes told me it was time to leave this familiar icy dance with this bird until I come better equipped to deal with the cold. As I watched the early morning sunlight shine off the frozen water I thought of my potential next encounters with him in the upcoming winter as he walked away from me again and admitted, yes he won this battle of the cold with me again this day, but next winter, I'm going to be the winner.
  • DSC_9809 sparrow hiding in the bushes
  • DSC_9865 sparrow pearching on a pine branch
  • DSC_9872 sparrow pearching on a pine branch
  • DSC_0031 well hidden
  • DSC_0042 white throated sparrow
  • I'm a lot better at photographing birds than identifying them afterwards. Can't tell you what type of bird this is.
  • DSC_0049 Cardinal on a winter morning at Clove lake
  • DSC_0080 white throated sparrow at Clove lake
  • I had the good fortune of being off today, and with snow still covering the branches I thought it would be a good chance to add a few nice shots of our local feathered inhabitants in a pleasing winter setting. I was right.
  • DSC_0127 white throated sparrow
  • In the spring of 08', the first place I came to to put my brand new DSLR through its' paces was the Central Park zoo. That day I got a nice shot of an pair of Panamanian golden frogs. But still, I always wanted a better photo of them, but never found a better composed shot, or if I did the crowds around their display were too numerous to even attempt it. After almost 3 years I FINALLY got that second chance.
  • DSC_0187 parrots at the Central Park zoo
  • WOW did this guy make a lot of racket!
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