Frozen

After a month of distractions and bad weather keeping me from photography, there was finally a good forecast. I went to the refuge and started walking. The roads were mostly crusted over with ice and snow; footing was slippery and loud (crunchy ice). I got to the shore and found the bay frozen over. There were geese and terns walking on the ice and congregating around the very few open water spots. As the tide moved the ice, it popped and cracked. Every few minutes, it shifted and groaned and creaked. Here's a panorama I took with my phone.

Frozen Belmont Bay

I walked along the shore and did see some eagles. The photographs are no better than others that I've posted previously, so I won't add them here. It was hard to get close to any birds at all: crunching footsteps alerted them and scared them away. I flushed a couple of eagles that way.

The Fish and Wildlife Service finally blocked the road next to one of the eagle nests. Standing behind the barrier, I could just make out the head of an adult that was in the nest, presumably sitting on eggs. Its mate came by and perched in the tree for a while. The other nest near the water was vacant; I don't think that one will produce any eaglets this year.