At My Window
December is the month for the most spectacular of sunrises, as I’ve noted. Why have I called this one “Ducks’ Dawn”? It’s due, in part, to the large number and variety of ducks on the pond for this time of year, including four score of the familiar Mallards, and a dozen-and-a-half of that most magnificent of all ducks, the inaptly named Common Merganser — all busy swimming or flying from one watery destination to another on the pond. Early this morning, I also saw what looked to be an American Coot near the shore, but it was still too dark for taking pictures.
More to the point, during this shoot, I happened to capture a group of Mallards in flight. You can see them in the fourth frame. I had a bit of luck there, of course. As the great French scientist, Louis Pasteur famously said, “In the fields of observation chance favors only the prepared mind.”
I debated whether to post all of these photos — which I had winnowed from the original seventy-
two — or just the one “best.” They’re all so beautiful, I couldn’t decide, and took the easy way out.
As I’ve noted before, these celestial events are ephemeral. This one lasted a mere fifteen minutes. The changes in light and color during that brief period were subtle, but no less impressive for that. I urge you to view one or more of the scenes full-screen; just click on a photo to enlarge it. This sequence was recorded on December 27, 2011, and posted here the same day.
I’d like to take this opportunity to wish all my Readers happiness and good health in the coming New Year, as well as a big belly-laugh every now and then.
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Thank you! For early risers like me, there are perhaps few things more magical than watching another day unfold on the Pond. The vista is different day to day, moment to moment, vantage point from vantage point. Living on the opposite shore from Ron, the dawn I observe on winter days must be what the ancient Vedas invoked: Ushas, a radiant peach and gold maiden, a charioteer who ushers in the sun. On the morning that Ron took his dawn photographs, I was mesmerized by the fingers of brilliant colors in the sky, and their reflection in the Pond, the bare trees in silhouette against it all. The sun is constant, and yet to us humans, it is born every moment, constantly ushered in all over the world, by Ushas, the dawn.