The end of 2009 brought a surprise snowstorm followed by cold rains. If you’re a hungry predator, you can’t wait out the bad weather if you want to eat. Two bitterns were working the edge of South Quigley Lake, there was one a few feet below me that was actively stalking the shoreline (you’ve seen its handiwork catching voles in other posts), while this one further up the road stayed fairly still and seemed more interested in opportunistic meals.

When I noticed a juvenile heron hanging out at the end of the auto tour at Ridgefield during the Christmas break of 2009, I made an effort to photograph it every chance I could. One thing in particular I wanted to photograph was the most distinctive differences between juvenile and adult herons: the lack of white on top of their heads. On this day, though, the young heron had plenty of white on top.

You win this round, Mother Nature.

Congratulations Ellie!

Today is the one year anniversary of the day we adopted her at the Humane Society and brought her home. I’d tell her how lucky she is we found her but I know we’re the lucky ones, we got a real sweetheart!

This picture of our serious-looking girl was from the snow late last year, I had just gotten home and took a few quick pictures before we lost the light completely. She stayed when I told her to, but she wasn’t interested in pictures, she just wanted to get on to playing, and play we did! Turns out hedgehogging is especially fun in the snow and we played until we could barely stand.

She and I spent yesterday enjoying treats and hedgehogging and snuggling and watching football, which wouldn’t be a bad way to spend today either.

We had a sunny and cold Christmas this year instead of our normal wet or occasional white one. I had been hoping to play with Ellie in the snow since it was playing with Porter from next door in last year’s big snow that started me thinking it was time for us to adopt a dog, but no such luck.

On Tuesday, I checked the weather before heading up to Ridgefield and saw the rain was supposed to make a comeback in the afternoon. It didn’t rain but as I started my last trip around the auto tour at the end of the day, I had to smile at the few flakes that fell, hardly enough to call even a flurry, my first snowflakes of the season. The snow picked up as I drove around but it wasn’t until I got near the end that it was falling hard enough that I started to get a little concerned. After snapping some quick pics of baby nutria and a juvenile heron in the snow, I started for home.

Unfortunately our Subaru is in the shop this week and I was in a rental, so I was without four-wheel drive, but I got home without incident, the roads being fairly clear and getting into our driveway proved the biggest challenge. My timing proved fortuitous as the snow continued to fall through the evening and I just missed the worst of the traffic.

I took Ellie out to play in the snow as soon as I got home, either on our walk or with other dogs in the park or hedgehogging on a snow-covered turf in the backyard. She was having the time of her life and after a couple of hours of vigorous play we called it a night.

Both of us took it pretty easy the next day.

I agree, Mr. Elk, I agree. We’ve had an unusual spate of sunny days the past couple of weeks. Sunny and cold days, although the clouds and rain returned this weekend and it should be back to normal this week.

I came across this bull elk late one evening on a snowy day in Yellowstone in the fall of 2007. I’m always a bit nervous driving in snow on my hiking trips since I’m traveling alone and not used to the winter conditions, but the snow wasn’t too heavy on this day (although a heavier storm arrived soon enough).

While it has become de rigueur for every tourist to have their picture snapped with Umbrella Man, a couple of giveaways suggest the beloved sculpture may not be from around here. First, he wears a suit. Nobody in Oregon wears a suit. Second, the eponymous umbrella. Even during the rainy season, Portlanders are as likely to throw on a raincoat as throw up an umbrella.

We’ll forgive him though, as his friendly attitude is a hallmark of the citizens of Portland, one of the many, many reasons I love living here.

I just got back from a trip to Austin where the temperatures were regularly above 100°, quite a bit warmer than we’re used to here in Portland, so here’s a picture from this past December when the weather was slightly cooler. We had gotten an unusual amount of snow so I walked from our house to downtown Portland to photograph the city in the snow.

We know the sculpture by Seward Johnson in Pioneer Square as Umbrella Man but his formal name is Allow Me. He is supposed to represent someone offering to lend a hand but he reminds me of someone trying to hail a cab.

Looking west from the Steel Bridge you see the residential side of the river with the West Hills behind, dusted with snow on this wintry day. Just behind the housing is Union Station, the rail terminal for trains coming up from the south and heading north towards Seattle.

In this view from the Steel Bridge of the grain terminal on the Willamette River, you can see a train pulling into the terminal and both a barge and an ocean-going ship in the background. Also note the waterfowl around the barge, they pick up the grain that spills into the water like a dog eating fallen scraps from the dinner table. I’m always pleased to include wildlife in my non-wildlife shots.

You can also see the Broadway Bridge (the red bridge) in the background, and even a little bit of the large Fremont Bridge, the bridge I take on the rare days I drive to the office.

Standing in the middle of the Steel Bridge you can see both shores of the Willamette: the working shore on the east and the residential shore on the west. This is the industrial side where the ships are loaded and unloaded. The closest terminal houses the huge silos where grain is stored.

Another picture from December of the Made in Oregon sign on a snowy night, taken from the Burnside Bridge. There is no traffic in this one so I lightened the bottom of the image to highlight the snow and pedestrians with a graduated filter in Adobe Camera Raw, one of the neat new features in the latest version of Photoshop.

I played around with these filters while evaluating the software, you can see the difference by comparing this year’s whiteboard art with last year’s, the lighting was the same in both shots but I compensated for the light dropoff on the left side in this year’s picture with the graduated filter.

I’ll go back and update the older whiteboard pictures at some point, but, ah, let’s just say it isn’t a high priority.

This picture turned out to be one of my favorites from that day, and I would have never gotten it if the MAX line hadn’t been so terribly delayed that I decided to hoof it home. Silver linings and all that.

One last picture of my favorite stop sign, an environmental portrait if you can consider a picture of a stop sign an environmental portrait. I think it shows nicely how much it was snowing that day, as well as how most people (and dogs) were choosing to get around our snowy neighborhood.

Speaking of dogs, we did go up to the Humane Society this weekend to look over their selection of dogs but didn’t come home with one. We loved all three we looked at but weren’t sure they were right for us and the cats. Two of the three dogs have since been adopted and they were the two I thought would be hardest to adopt.

My favorite cat at the shelter also got adopted, we weren’t considering adding another but I was charmed by this one in particular, at 13 years old I’m glad she found a good home (and no, it wasn’t ours).

A view over I-5 from the Burnside Bridge. Not too sharp as it was handheld and I wanted a long exposure to turn the car lights into long streaks. Normally I would have braced the camera on the edge of the bridge, but there was a lot of snow both on the bridge and on the railing, and since I’m scared of heights as it is, I played it safe. Besides I had originally promised my wife I’d be home before dark, but with the MAX line down I was hoofing it and running behind.

This section of the interstate seemed pretty clear but that wasn’t true for many other areas, and the side streets were a mess. Not a bad day to be walking all things considered and I was having a lot of fun taking pictures on the walk home.

Q: What’s the difference between this Christmas tree and the Christmas tree in our house?

A: There are no cats in this tree!

Other acceptable answers, for the types that are sticklers for facts, are this is a real tree and ours is fake, and this one won’t fit in our house but does fit in Portland’s Living Room, Pioneer Square.

Speaking of trees, Emma climbed into bed with me last night and was the only cat there when I woke up in the morning, you don’t know how honored I am that she chose me instead of the tree!

Apparently sea creatures aren’t the only ones who enjoyed Portland’s recent snow!

I’ve been wanting to photograph My Bridge (some insist on calling it the Steel Bridge) for a while, so the recent snow gave me the perfect opportunity as I walked across the bridge and towards downtown Portland. I ride the MAX across My Bridge twice a day, five times a week, heading to and from work.

In addition to the light rail, the bridge also handles car and pedestrian traffic as seen in the top picture. How much would you pay for this bridge? But wait there’s more! The bridge also handles regular train traffic, such as the Amtrak train crossing on the bottom section in the bottom picture. What if I told you the middle section of the bridge can be raised to allow tall ships to pass underneath? Now how much would you pay?

This bridge can do it all! It’s a steal! Or at least a Steel!

Our neighborhood leans to the left, which you might have noticed from my Irvington grafiitti pictures. So I wasn’t surprised to see a number of Obama signs in the run up to the Presidential election, but a number people have kept the signs up almost two months later.

Mother nature added her own change this winter, dumping unusual amounts of snow in the run up to Christmas.

I’ve mentioned before that Templeton turned me into a cat person but that’s not to say I’ve lost my love for dogs. Our neighbors have a wonderful dog named Porter that fortunately is pretty fond of me as well, this is the two of us playing in the snow.

The only problem is that it makes me miss having a dog around …

This snowy scene from Pioneer Square in downtown Portland brings to mind a different season than Springsteen’s Girls In Their Summer Clothes, one of many songs I downloaded this year thanks to the promotion Pepsi has been running with Amazon.

Alas my gravy train is coming to an end as of New Year’s Eve.

Pepsi has run similar promotions in the past with Apple and I have mixed feelings about the switch to Amazon. Regardless, I’m thankful for all of the music I’ve been able to add to my collection this year, whether I was backfilling goofy pop songs from my youth or trying out music I’ve not heard before.

But I still haven’t been able to find the song that Templeton always wanted me to get, “I Scrod, You Scrod, We All Scrod For More Scrod”. Nor, for that matter, “Karma Karma Karma Karma Karma Tunafish”.

We’re actually having a white Christmas here in Portland, the first for me in many years. To be honest I can’t even remember the last one although I’m sure we had them in Michigan when I was growing up.

A couple of days ago I walked from my house in NE Portland to downtown and back again, I wanted pictures of the city itself as I’ve never taken them before, if I have the time I usually go hiking instead. I didn’t want to drive anywhere given the heavy snow so it gave me the perfect opportunity to walk around and photograph the snow in Stumptown.

I had originally intended to take the MAX line back home at the end of the afternoon but they were having major problems, after waiting for quite a while I eventually gave up and walked back across the Willamette River to my house. It’s a good thing I didn’t take the train as it gave me a chance for some pictures after the sun set that I otherwise would have missed.

I walked back across the river on the Burnside Bridge and got a chance to photograph the Made in Oregon sign. I’ve been wanting to photograph the sign for a long time and was glad for the opportunity, as they will likely be changing the sign since the Made in Oregon store is no longer in that spot.

As a bonus for Christmas the leaping deer sports a red nose in honor of Rudolph. Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer, you may have heard of him. He had a very shiny nose.

Some of my other shots were sharper (this was handheld) but I like the headlights of the traffic the best in this picture.