Carnival, Finch Flying, and Owl

Ted Levin named this owl of indeterminate gender, George.  It visits his yard in White River Junction often.  I was fortunate to be able to spend several hours early this Sunday morning photographing it.

We believed it was listening for prey under the deep snow when these three photos were taken.  At this point I had spent a cold hour watching it sleep.

And then it flew.

But it stayed put only a minute before it flew back, but not as far as its original perch.

It sat for about ten minutes with its feathers fluffed.

And then it headed back to where it perhaps thought there might be a red squirrel.

We watched George do nothing for another hour.  Meanwhile Ted was scraping ice off his deck making an ear-shattering racket. The owl couldn’t have cared less.

Finally it departed down the valley.

The second morning was sunny, and the birds were strongly backlit. However, the birds were few and far between. The same thing happened in our yard. With the somewhat warmer weather the birds have seemed to either need less calories or are finding food in the deep woods.

Pine Siskin

I got just one quick look at a single Pine Siskin in the snowstorm.  It is a beautiful finch. 

American Goldfinch

Here are a half dozen photos of goldfinch flying during the snowfall.

And three photos from a short stay on the sunny morning with few birds.

Winter Carnival at Dartmouth

Dartmouth’s 2026 Winter Carnival was themed The Blizzard of Oz:  Wicked Cold.  And it was cold, but not as cold as earlier weeks.  This year the ice sculptures did not melt before they were judged as they had in the past.

Frost Lights

I spent Friday late afternoon and early evening in College Park to see if I could do something interesting with the “Frost Lights” light show.

The Observatory was bathed in green.

Colored lights played on Bartlett Tower, sometimes shining through artificial fog.

A structure of semi-circles was adorned with colored lights.

I had fun photographing it with a slow shutter speed while zooming my lens.

A fire was burning.

So I added it to the zoomed lights.

It was a colorful scene.  I was there early so it was not crowded.

Ice Sculptures

I visited the Ice Sculptures three time:  early in the carving, later in the carving, and when finished.

Dartmouth built stairs down to Occom Pond in order to cut ice for the sculptures. 

Then a week later the stairs were gone leaving only a caged circle of very weak ice.

I have attempted to group the sculptors with their finished sculptures.  (I’m not sure I completely succeeded.)

I gave up trying to match sculptors and sculptures and just tossed images in a slide show.