Geese & Gulls Reflecting On Ice
Cambridge Creek has had a few thin-ice freeze-overs this past January and February. During those days, the visiting birds would dwindle down to just the gulls and geese.
Watching them rest, walk around, take-off, and land on the ice was interesting to watch. Sometimes they outweighed the ice’s strength.
Canada Geese walking on ice
Their weight begins to submerge the ice.
Bingo! We have water, guys!
Canada Geese slowly but surely collapsing the ice
The shining sun melting the ice sometimes produced a mirror-effect when the lighting and time of day were just right.
Some of my favorites…..
Canada Goose
Great Black-backed Gull
Canada Geese
Ring-billed (left) and two Herring Gulls
Canada Goose
Canada Goose
Great Black-backed, Ring-billed, and Herring Gulls
Ring-billed Gull (first winter)
Canada Geese “Quad Squad”
As always, thank you for stopping by,
and have a wonderful, reflective weekend!
These are beautiful! Love the reflections and drinking water off the melting ice. 😎🙏🏻❤️
Thank you, John! Those feet look cold, though, don’t they?!! 😉
Yes! I despise having cold feet. 😬
Shooting from above gives an excellent background color. The subjects look tridimensional. Good job Donna. 🙂
Thank you, HJ! These photo ops just begged to be taken, it was so beautiful at the right time. Of course, I took oodles of shots! 🙂
Fun photos. I especially liked the last two and the title: “Quad Squad”.
Thank you, David! If you need any lawn areas chewed up and fertilized, the Quad Squad is for hire. Also too, if you need someone chased and goosed. They really enjoy that service! 😉
These are great, with crinkled reflections and groupings. I like how the ring-billed (first winter) is digging his toes into the ice. Built-in cleats! I have never seen the great black-backed gull, so thanks for sharing that. It is a nice reprieve from the longest period of winter chill in 40 years.
Thank you, Jane! Aren’t those little Ring-billed cleats cute?!! 😉 Stay warm, Spring promises to be around the corner!
You are so talented. I love every photo you take.
Awwww…thank you so much, Cindy, your comments made my day! ❤
Amazing ice shots Donna, they all seem to be walking on water. Great for reflections, and well shot. Love the light on the birds gives a really detailed profile with an almost stage spot light like appearance. Praying you are feeling better.
Thank you, Ashley! Sometimes that ice was so thin, I was amazed the birds didn’t fall through many other times. Proves how light birds really are! 🙂 Yes, I am feeling so much better, thank you, Ashley, for your prayers. I hope you’re feeling much better too! 🙏
Lovely captures.
Thank you, Brian!
Beautiful captures! Do the geese and gulls just drink water or do they also eat whatever they can?
Thank you, Hien! Although geese primarily it green vegetation & grains, they will sometimes eat small fish when dabbling. Not sure they’re finding any fish here though at this time of year. But they do love to land on or fly up on from the creek to the wide open grass area on the other side of our marina and chow down on the grass there. And, of course, gulls eat anything they can pick at. They love to hang around the geese and wintering ducks to see what they bring up when diving that the gull can steal.
Beautiful, Donna! I love reflections and how they enhance every one of these pictures. Thanks for sharing!
Thank you, Susan! 🙂
Star subjects Donna😊. Beautiful reflections, colour and light in your photos!
Thank you, Belinda! On those mirroring opportunity days, I didn’t get much housework done. 😊
A lovely set of images.
Thank you Tom!
Great photos Donna. Those reflections are beautiful. I’m amazed at a few of the gulls actually sitting on the ice, they must have plenty of insulation!
Thank you, Sue! When there’s been no ice, the gulls sit/stand very crowdedly all over the marina docks. So I thought it odd that when it iced over each time, they would all go on that cold ice, leaving the piers and docks empty. They must have insulation! 😉
Fantastic pictures! I’ve seen lots of fowl on ice, but never before seen reflections! Incredible!
Thank you, Terry! It’s been a lot of fun with the challenge of trying to capture their reflections when they positioned in the right spot with the nice lighting. 😉
Kewl Ring-bill!
Thank you RH!
Falling waaay behind again. Amazing and funny how they walk on the ice. Don’t know how on earth you manage to tell the gulls apart. 😀
Oh please don’t worry, I am always behind more than ahead, lol. Re the gulls, I am trying to learn to ID them, recently bought a highly recommended book, “Gulls Simplified” by Pete Dunne & Kevin Karlson. I’m still far from IDing many on my own still. 😀
I may wait until I get better at the more obvious types before I try to tackle gulls! But you’re way ahead of me, so have at it!!!
Love the big-group shot of the Canada Geese!
Thank you, Liz! I must have taken several dozen photos of that group of Canada Geese, their reflections and the perfect distance worked for a perfect focused shot. I did use my tripod, which helped 1000%! 🙂