Festival of the Equinox

The City Daily Photo community has been experimenting with mid-month theme days and this one is perfectly suited to me - the Equinox.  Do check out the other submissions from all over the world - there are some incredibly creative photographers in our community!

I approached the theme literally - as usual - and strove to depict balance.  The trees are roughly equidistant from the edges of the frame, there's about as much water as land and about as much ice as water if we consider the snow on the ground.  More philosophically, the ducks - male and female - are mates.  They've weighed the benefits of migrating against the costs and decided to brave the ice and snow in order to have first pick of the nesting sites.  Their survival and their offspring's is in the balance.  Drama right here in the middle of the city.

Lens	Minolta MD 50mm f/1.4
F Number	unrecorded, probably f/4
Focal Length	50.0 mm
Exposure Time	1/100
Exposure Program	Manual
ISO	100
Exposure Compensation	-0.66
Flash	Off, Did not fire

Feeding the ducks

Typically, feeding ducks would find us at Central Park.  We took a short trip down the Schoharie valley to Cooper's Ark Farm, in Schoharie.  The farm is animals; ducks, chickens, turkeys, pigs, donkeys and horses.  I'm sure there are some I missed!  Phil took us on a tour, and as part of the tour, we got to do chores.

Farming is still the same hard work it was when my grandfather did it.

 

F Number	7.1
Lens ID	LUMIX G VARIO 14-45mm F3.5-5.6
Focal Length	17.0 mm (35 mm equivalent: 34.0 mm)
Exposure Time	1/400
Exposure Program	Program AE
ISO	200
Exposure Compensation	0
Flash	Off, Did not fire

Ducks

Late afternoon and the sun is shining on 'The Casino'. That building has been called the Casino all my life, and I've seen post cards of it looking much the same from the 1930s, but I never remember any gambling going on there. It's always been hot dogs and ice cream; that sort of thing. One can rent a paddleboat there, too.

We've had a heat wave, and the lake is shallow, so the water warmed up quickly. The aquatic plants have really been growing, so the surface of the water is dotted with the tops of them.

James at Newtown Daily Photo runs a theme called Weekend Reflections. Around a hundred photo bloggers post a photo containing a reflection; beautiful work. Click the link and go see!

Chilly swim

The Cowhorn Creek is covered by the city for most of its course, but here in Vale Park, it is flowing free on the surface. Free enough to keep a patch clear of ice on the pond. I don't know what possessed these ducks to overwinter here, but they don't seem to be bothered by the ice and snow.

Ducks in a swimming pool

During our paddle boat excursion, we went by the swimming pool. The Central Park swimming pool is a section of Iroquois Lake that has been walled off and the bottom paved. The part closest to the wall is the deepest, and not many swimmers go there. To be honest, the water is quite cold; fed directly from the city's main water supply. Besides that, it's mostly children who swim here and they prefer the shallows.

Well for some reason known only to them, the ducks like it here. Maybe they like city water better than pond water? I sure don't know, but it's fun to see them floating in the pool like that.

Ducks

Down in the bottom of Vale Cemetery, we came across a pair of mallard ducks. I got a little too close and spooked the male, who is swimming away. I left straightaway; he came right back. It will be very interesting to see if this pair decide to nest here. It's quite wooded here, but there's open water downstream about a quarter mile away. These ducks are very common around here - we can see them in almost any small bit of water larger than a puddle!