January 24

 Today was above freezing at dawn which made for a welcome change. The snow has undergone another phase change and is very different from a few days ago. It is soft and melted enough that the tracks are self-erasing. It’s as if no one had  been walking through the snow three days ago. In Rosie’s Thicket, I found this tuft of fur on the snow. There were no tracks or signs of struggle. It fell from the air above. Perhaps the squirrels were tussling up in the branches. Another minor mystery.

With the warmer air, some of the ditches draining into Rosie’s Pond opened up and the ducks and geese were quick to take advantage to feed and rest.

Lawn and Palermo Streets were quiet. From the Overlook path, it was obvious that a front was moving in from the northwest. It’s going to get a lot colder overnight.

The Overlook and the flats were empty. From the Boardwalk, I watched a small bird tangling with the crows who were feeding on something way out on the flats toward the northeast. It was very aggressive and the crows backed off. I looked through my binoculars and didn’t see any coloring so I assume that it was a Merlin. It stopped to perch on one of the poles.

The park was quiet except for the dogs. The Revere creek was full of ice floes. Along the edge of this one in the photo, you can see the ice tendrils reaching out into the water as the air temperature started to drop.

With the front coming and the mixture of dark cloud and blue open sky, the light was dramatic this morning. It was a photographer’s workspace filled with all kinds of light sources. The grate on the Bennington St. bridge is hardly worth looking at. Today it was spectacular to contemplate.

The northwest wind started to roar and got me home to my coffee quicker than usual but again it was a great day to be out.

Ciao!

-Jorge

This entry was posted on January 24, 2009 at 2:15 pm and is filed under Daily. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.