Winter Comes to Texas
There’s a good chance for snow they said...”sure, there is” I muttered to myself as heavy rain pelted my roof...I began my Sunday morning with a cup of hot tea and sat down to edit some photos that I had been meaning to look through. Occasionally, I’d glance up to see if there was any bird activity at the feeders but rain seems to keep them hunkered down and I hadn’t seen a bird or Sebastian for that matter all morning.
It was barely 8 am but my stomach was growling so a bowl of oatmeal for breakfast sounded good and after ten months of practice, I’ve finally perfected my recipe for edible oatmeal...I stood and watched the water come to a boil and then added a generous dollop of unsalted butter and a pinch of kosher salt. I stirred in the oatmeal and as it began to thicken I added a heaping spoon of brown sugar and a splash of Mexican vanilla...heavy cream is drizzled in to add some creamy richness and then a quick dusting of cinnamon...plump blueberries, a ridiculously large handful are tossed in to offset the heavy cream.
I noticed that the rain seemed to be stopping but out of the corner of my eye something caught my attention...sleet...great...I hate sleet...but we need the rain and I have no plans of leaving the house so I’m not bothered....WAIT!!!! WHAT??? NO WAY! It’s a flake, is it snowing??? I pulled open the back door and stood in amazement as snowflakes, albeit, tiny ones fell from the sky...a few minutes later, bigger ones fell...and then a bird landed on my platform feeder...this is surreal. For the next two hours, still in my pajamas, I sat in the doorway with the back door wide open, the heater blasting, and bundled under a blanket I watched the snow fall and the birds fly in.
With one camera on a tripod and aimed at the platform feeder, I started filming the frenzy of activity on the feeder. With another camera, I hammered off shots of the birds that parked on the fence or on a nearby branch as they waited for their turn at the feeder. The sheer volume of House Sparrows and House Finches created a lot of noise in the backyard and I’ll admit that I had to refill the feeder a couple of times because I was so entranced watching them. Northern Cardinals are common in this area of Texas but I had never seen more than a mating pair in my yard at a time. I was downright giddy when their red feathers popped color into a ever growing white landscape. It seemed that word had traveled through the trees because my backyard hosted a variety of different birds looking for a bite to keep their tummies full. Over the course of just a couple of hours I hosted Northern Cardinals (the most I’ve ever seen at one time in my yard); House Finches, Red-winged Blackbirds; Bluejays; European Starlings; Carolina Chickadees; Carolina Wrens; a Dark-eyed Junco; a Mocking Bird; a Golden-fronted Woodpecker; and my precocious resident squirrel, Sebastian.
As the snowfall began to wane, I felt a little disappointed but within the hour even bigger flakes floated slowly to the ground. In the 36 years that I’ve lived in Austin, I can only remember one other good snow day...and it wasn’t nearly as marvelous as this one. Two and a half hours later, my trigger finger had become numb, I had rattled off at least 600+ images of the birds, and sadly, that’s not an exaggeration.
Do I even dare???
Snow — I know it’s not the same but I’ve slid and fallen on ice. I’ve also been in a car with someone that hit a patch of “black” ice and it scared the bejeezus out of me. I’m from Texas and when it ices the entire state shuts down and I stay home in freezing precipitation. The birds were fun to photograph but my inner adventurer was curious as to what was on the other side of my garage door. Still waffling over whether I should go out, I pulled out my cold-weather gear and packed my camera bag. I made a double serving of hot tea and told myself over and over, “just go slow...”. It hadn’t snowed that much but it was accumulating and as much as I wanted to get a shot of the state Capitol covered with fresh snow, I opted to head for backroads where there would be fewer cars on the road. Heading east from my house led me to a rural area where farmers still bale hay and little ranches are sprinkled with cattle. Church cemeteries date back to the late 1800’s and in the distance, I saw a coyote crossing a brush-filled pasture. I didn’t have a plan other than to wander and see whatever I saw.
As I navigated the two-lane road I was careful to go slow ...“Driving Miss Daisy” slow. The first car that I passed in a ditch appeared to have been there for awhile because at least an inch of snow had started to pile on it. The second car I passed had spun out leaving visible tire marks across the road and embankment as it slid and landed backside into a utility pole. With help on the scene, I said a quick prayer for the driver and moved on. Snow continued to blanket plowed fields while cows buried their faces into hay stacks. I never thought I’d find black crows beautiful but against white snow they demanded to be photographed. I found beautiful little landscapes of fallen trees with lots of snow piled on them; a little stock tank covered in snow was dreamy; driveways along private property made beautiful leading lines to the house down the road; abandoned houses seemed to come to life with character; even tractors and farm equipment looked beautiful behind my snow-colored glasses.
Every once in awhile a car would come up behind me, I’d turn my flashers on and wave them past me. At one point, I noticed a car in the distance ahead of me and thought they might be in trouble. When I pulled up to ask if they were “alright” the driver rolled down the window and he turned out to be another photographer that I knew. Snow makes a lot of people excited because it’s an unspoken invitation to come out and build a snowman or chase someone with a BIG ole snow ball. Photographers can’t help themselves — they need to wander, to document, to capture that perfect image of a snow-filled landscape. I don’t think anyone would disagree with me but the mood and playfulness snow brings to a scene seems to elevate an image.
New Sweden Cemetery
One of my favorite images from my field trip is the New Sweden cemetery. The headstones ladened high with snow looked so peaceful as the United States flag was flying proudly. Serene, dignified, and majestic it was the most somber of the scenes that I found on my backroad adventure. The most fun I had was photographing the cows at a haystack. The snow was falling so fast and so densely that I couldn’t even make out their faces.
I know that it snows in a lot of places, but for one day...central Texas was covered in big fluffy snowflakes and became a playground for this photographer. I didn’t have to get on a plane to travel to a far and exotic location. My “backroad” field trip satisfied a little of my wanderlust for a couple of hours. The change of scenery was refreshing, uplifting, and a welcomed distraction from the chaos and stress in our lives during this pandemic.
As I sat down to download my images onto my laptop, I saw my bowl of uneaten and forgotten oatmeal sitting where I had left it.
Snow Birding - a two-minute video of the feeding frenzy.