Ducks and Ice

Mid-March ushered a cold front into Iowa with temperatures dipping down into single digits.  Given the warm weather prior to this and the winds experienced during this cold front, I was not expecting the lakes and wetlands to freeze over.  This storm caught me unaware and unprepared.

Thanks to a birding/photography buddy, I was made aware of a consequence of the cold front playing out at Storm Lake.  The vast majority of the lake iced over, but there were open pockets of water in the marina.  These pockets were like a magnet for migrating waterfowl.

And a huge bonus was that the slightly warmer water in the marina attracted Gizzard Shad and other small fish.

I went up to Storm Lake the afternoon of the 18^th and had some photography success.  Before leaving for the evening, I scouted out where I wanted to position myself the next morning.  I would just lie on the docks in the marina.

On the 19^th, I left home at 5:10 a.m. figuring this would give me plenty of time to get to Storm Lake, carry gear out onto the dock, get into position and settled down before it started getting light on the eastern horizon.  Silly me.  There were plenty of lights on the docks.  So much for getting in position under the cover of darkness, so as not to scare the birds.  Fortunately, there were not too many other places for the ducks to go; they simply moved to the far side of the open water pockets.

Competition for food can be fierce.  When a duck catches a fish, it has to reposition it in its beak so that it can be swallowed head-first.  It isn’t like the duck has hands to do this.  So, the grip on the fish is released during repositioning.  During the process, the fish can be dropped.   When its grip is loosened or the fish is dropped, it is a perfect opportunity for another duck to sneak in and steal an easy meal. 

It was a great morning to get action photos of ducks.  Unfortunately, very warm temperatures later that day and all night melted all the ice.  By the morning of the 20^th, the opportunity was gone.  And the 10-day forecast did not show any upcoming days with single digit temperatures.  Darn the luck.

If it wasn’t for my buddy calling me, I would have missed this opportunity.  It was a great morning of photography and I owe it all to him (and the cold weather).