Friday, January 16, 2009

Monticello swans this morning

After bragging about it to a number of people, I had not choice but to go, even though the temp. this morning was 24 below zero.
I left for Monticello -- normally about a 45 min. drive -- at 7 a.m.
But the traffic was miserable until 694 split from 94.




As I approached Monticello, about 8 a.m, the temp. was -20




These are a few shots of my first views of the swan feeding area.







There were many more swans, I won't venture a guess, up the river to the northwest.
I had dressed as warm as I could with boots from Cabellas, multiple layers covered by a hooded down jacket from Lands End, etc. Yet, I could stand the cold for only about 15 minutes at a time -- with 10 minute breaks in the running car. The main problem was my hands -- I was wearing gloves within gloves (the warmest Cabellas sells).
The warm ups in the car helped the camera batteries, I didn't have to replace them in either body.
I'll be posting more pix as I edit them -- I took well over 500 shots.