Wind and water

This morning things weren't looking promising on the photography front, given that it was raining and all. But by this afternoon it'd turned into a picture-perfect spring day, so after work I headed over to Howell's once I'd returned to Arlington.

It was pretty windy out, so I figured my chances of seeing a lot of birds around were fairly small. And that was indeed the case during the time I was there. However, I did notice something a little different about the top of the closer of the two beaver lodges—a turtle was sitting on it:



This larger turtle stayed in its spot a few feet off the shore the entire time I was there, occasionally popping its head up for a bit of air. For a few minutes the wind eased up and the light was just right so you could see all the way into the water, so I snapped this shot that gives you more of a sense of the rest of the turtle's body:




As I stood by the shore a car headed toward the campground came to a stop next to me. The gentleman driving said he'd seen me taking pictures of birds, and wanted to let me know that there was a family of geese living by the pond in the campground itself: two adults and two goslings. I thanked him for stopping to let me know, walked over to my car, and headed on over. After finding a place to park that wouldn't block the one-lane dirt road, I went over to the shore. Happily, they were there and on land. I got as close as I dared (mostly because I was walking on property occupied by a camper and thus felt like I was on someone's lawn, although my healthy respect for what a pissed off goose can do was definitely a factor) and managed to get a couple of family portraits:





I took this one from across the pond—it's not great, but you can make out the two goslings in the water with their parent:



Most of my best picture opportunities, though, were of the ponds and their surroundings. First up, the way these vines had intertwined and how they stood out against the greenery behind them caught my eye as I walked along the road:



Some reeds silhouetted against the water:


I never get tired of how the reflection of the trees on the other side of the pond results in such a vivid green color, an effect that's particularly pronounced as the sun goes down and is thus directly across from them:



Finally, I just thought the effect of the wind on the water here was really cool: