Ice, Ice, Baby!

Mags and I went to Hagerman National Wildlife Refuge yesterday for an excellent program on prairie restoration then to attend the Friends of Hagerman's new nature club photography meeting. I thought the program was scheduled to start at 9, but it didn't start until 10 so Mags and I drove around Hagerman looking for photographic opportunities. It was only 10 degrees F when we drove up so we were surprised and amazed to see the amount of ice on Lake Texoma.

We were looking for the snow geese, and we found a group way out on the water. Maggie saw them take off and land in a new spot, and she was amazed at the swarm.

We decided to drive by the cabin to check on her chickens and make sure the pipes in the cabin hadn't frozen. On the way, we found where the snow geese were hiding. They were in a pasture along Hagerman road. We stopped so Maggie could watch (and photograph) them flying in, landing and resting. She was amazed at how many were visiting.

As we proceeded along Cemetary Road to the cabin, we found a pond where Canadian geese (and a Blue Heron) were resting. Maggie didn't realize the geese were sleeping on ice until one of them stood up. Imagine her surprise! We imagined that the Blue Heron was wondering why he was surrounded by geese and why were they sleeping on cold ice when they could be on the (relatively) warm bank in the sun.

When we arrived at the cabin, the crazy chickens were all out of the coop waiting for someone to knock the ice out of their water. After we unloaded and Maggie de-iced, it was time to go back to Hagerman for the program.