Photo of the Week 2019-03-04

burning bush

As sun begins to set on the winter of '18/'19, I find myself lamenting the change. While social media vibrates with howling and whining about another snow storm or colder temperatures, I shake my head at those never content with Canadian weather ... it's been like this (or worse) for centuries, why expect anything different.

A friend recently opined, "I think if people had stuff to do in the winter like you or myself they would enjoy it more" and I absolutely believe he has the truth of it. That I love being outside in winter is no surprise to followers of this blog, my photography and social media streams. Having "stuff to do", and enjoy doing in winter, is a big part of this.

Up north for the weekend to embrace as much of what remains of winter, I made sure to get out and take it all in. A morning walk to freshen my mind had me out, camera in hand, in silence so peaceful that I could literally hear the snow falling on my jacket with birds chirping as they hopped around the branches of roadside trees. Further along, I stopped to investigate a 'knocking' sound and quickly recognized the random pattern of a Pileated Woodpecker hammering on a dead snag nearby. Climbing over the snowbank attempting to get a view. I sunk to mid-thigh in snow and was left chuckling only to see a large black winged blur make it's getaway while I struggled to extricate myself (after quickly checking to see if anyone/anything had noticed).

Later that day, when others may have been thinking of starting dinner or making a fire to hunker down with inside, I filled a photo backpack, strapped on snowshoes and headed outside. A suspected coyote den location was beckoning me to see if I could catch some activity in the fading light. A breeze off the lake was up and I felt it's invigorating touch on my face as I took up a position across from where I had seen tracks of coming and going ...

Standing, kneeling, sitting in wait, I listened to the sound of wind off the lake, watched the loose snow swirl over the frozen surface ... for quite some time ... until with no activity from the coyote, I turned my lens to the gorgeous Huron sky, satisfied to make another series of sunset images before heading home ...

'heading home'

Not long now and I'll have to replace snowshoes with the kayak and paddle. But this outing produced a number of images that may yet find their way off my hard-drive. For now, it's the image 'burning bush' (above) that makes the cut for Photo of the Week.



DJE