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Gold and Ice
Deanneart

Gold and Ice (Carduelis tristis)

We had a terrible ice storm last night and lost electricity about midnight. The sound of cracking branches and whole trees crashing down from the weight of the ice reverberated through the night and morning. There was probably about to an inch of ice coating everything. Ive never seen it this bad in all the years Ive been here. Weve had quite a bit of damage to the back gardens including my lovely tree hydrangea that Ive used as a backdrop for my bird photographs for the last three winters. An enormous White Pine limb crashed down onto it and there is only the trunk and a couple split branches left. Im brokenhearted about it but just have to look at is as an opportunity to do something new and creative with that part of the garden. We also now have a new hole in the garage roof where another large branch came down. Grrrr..

Half of the population of the state of NH is still without power tonight and they dont believe they are going to be able to restore service until Sunday or Monday. Fortunately we have a generator so we still have heat and some lights.

Anyway, whats the saying, When life hands you lemons make lemonade! So after picking up a ton of broken branches and stacking it all ready to take to the dump tomorrow I got out the camera and got some photos of the birds in the ice covered branches. The ice is lovely but too much is deadly!
Habitat
Garden
Location
Southern NH
Date taken
December 12, 2008
Scientific name
Carduelis tristis
Equipment used
Canon 40D - Canon 500 F4 IS + 1.4
Sorry for the damaged happened to your garden but your picture of this bird is so lovely !
 
Deanne, sorry to hear you were hammered by the storm. We we lucky to be spared in my part of CT (east of Hartford). Still, your image is beautiful and tells a story.
 
Deanne,

Belated post but sorry to hear of your dreadful weather conditions. We moan here in England about the seemingly perpetual drizzle but we do at least escape the extremes that you have to endure. That aside, I loved this picture. That goldfinch looks cold. It is striking the same pose that my wife does when suggesting that the heating should be turned up. Heating which, by the way, is alreadt set to "sub tropical". I have really enjoyed looking at your pictures

Barry
 
out of the destruction, appeared beauty, how do these delicate tine creatures survive out there?
 

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North America
Added by
Deanneart
Date added
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Comment count
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