Tag Archives: fog

Shrouded

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A northern shoveler swims on a pond shrouded in fog at Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge

Believe it or not, I don’t have a nickname for these trees beside Sora Marsh. I rarely photograph anything in this pond even though something is usually swimming in it. The road along the pond is too narrow to have a good spot to pull off and wait, and while there is a roomier spot where I took this picture, it’s usually not a great place for pictures. You do get lucky sometimes, I photographed a mink swimming across the pond once.

As with the previous picture, there is a bit of wildlife in this shot, a northern shoveler swimming alone in the distance.

Seven Brides

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A red-tailed hawk sits in a clump of trees on a foggy morning at Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge

The Cactus Tree isn’t the only tree I’ve named at Ridgefield. There are the Twin Brothers and, as seen here, the Seven Brides. And just like with the Twins, it doesn’t matter if the actual number of trees matches the nickname, it’s more about the impression I get when I see them. These trees aren’t actually grouped together, it only seems like it when you reach this part of the auto tour.

I can’t resist including a little bit of wildlife in my scenic pictures whenever I get the chance, this time the honor belongs to a red-tailed hawk perched on a foggy winter morning.

I love color in my pictures, including pictures of fog, but this one even I prefer in black and white.

The Cactus Tree

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A northern harrier sits on a stump on a foggy morning at Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge

I’ve wanted to photograph the Cactus Tree since I first visited Ridgefield years ago, so I was particularly pleased to see this harrier perched on it in the heavy fog one winter’s morning (the picture from the previous post was taken later that morning when the sun first started to break through).

It’s not a cactus of course, and these days not even a tree, just an old stump that reminds me of a cactus. It sits a ways off the road on the auto tour at Ridgefield, parts of the refuge are converted farmland so perhaps this stump is a remnant from when humans last lived here.

It’s a good thing I finally got a picture I liked, as on a visit not much later I noticed the stump was no longer standing, apparently having at long last fallen over into the marsh.

The Foggiest Idea

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An adult great blue heron hunts in heavy fog at Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge

One of the things I’ve been trying to do this winter is take pictures at Ridgefield that tell the story of the refuge and the animals that live there. And one of those stories is the fog that often envelops the refuge on an early winter morning.

My original idea was to photograph the heron upright against the fog so its silhouette would be instantly recognizable — and I did take some pictures like that — but when the heron dropped into a horizontal hunting pose I loved the subtlety of the picture. Peaceful and tranquil yet a reminder that, visible or not, the life-and-death struggle never ends.

A subtle picture like this loses much of its charm when I look at it on my laptop display, I much prefer it on my desktop monitor.