I’m very grateful to have been featured in a short (6 1/2 minutes) video on Nebraska Public Media’s Nebraska Stories. A terrific film crew spent two days with me at the Niobrara Valley Preserve and the final product came out really beautifully. I hope you enjoy it. (If you’re reading this in an email, either click on the title of the post to make the video active or just click on this link.) Huge thanks to Kelly Rush, Tiffany Johanson, and Emily Kreutz with Nebraska Public Media.

In other news, I did my best to take advantage of the brief spell of frigid temperatures we had recently. It’s over now, though, and I went to the grocery store in a t-shirt today. That’s not winter! Where’s the snow, ice, and ice? It has all melted away.

I had two great mornings in late January, though, with some gorgeous frost and ice. The first was at my ol’ dependable restored wetland and the second was out on the frozen surface of the Platte River. I’ve been waiting all winter for the temperatures to stay cold long enough to make some solid ice for me to walk out on. Right before the cold spell ended, I finally got that chance.

There are a lot of photos below, but if you make it to the end of this irresponsibly long post, there is a fun little surprise at the end.

Here are the photos from the frosty wetland.

There was a little open water coming across one of the many beaver dams at the wetland. I spent some time with an icy branch sticking out over the water.

Now, here are the photos from the river. It was well below zero (F) on this morning and I almost stayed home because it looked like it might be too cloudy. As it happened, I had about 10 minutes of light while the sun rose up through the thin band of open space between the horizon and the clouds. I scrambled around as much as I could during that short window.

Once the sun went behind the clouds, I wandered around for maybe 45 minutes without taking any photos – just enjoying the day. Eventually, the sun rose high enough and gained enough intensity that I had enough light (barely) to work with. It was still pretty dark, but that’s just mood lighting, right?

Ok, here’s the fun part I promised. At least, I hope you think it’s fun. I found a couple interesting patterns in the ice and thought I’d check to see if you see what I see.

Mini Quiz Question #1: In the photo above, look at the creature in the center of the image with its head on the left side of its body. See it? Ok. What direction is that creature looking?

A. It’s clearly looking to the right. Is it Woodstock from the Peanuts cartoons?

B. It’s looking to the left. Also, I’m pretty sure it’s a larval salamander of some kind.

C. Are you talking about an actual creature or just something your imagination sees in the ice?

D. It can be whatever you think. Also, it might be Woodstock even if it’s looking to the left?

E. Someone made a cartoon about peanuts??

Mini Quiz Question #2: How angry is the bird in the photo above?

A. So angry. Wow. I wouldn’t want to meet that bird in a dark alley.

B. You’re talking about the bird looking to the left with the slanty eye? It does look pretty mad, but sometimes it’s hard to know. It might just be discussing a serious topic.

C. Again, do you really see a bird? I just see ice.

D. That’s no bird. The proportions are all wrong. Well, maybe a cartoon bird, I guess.

E. There’s no bird in that photo. That’s clearly a ___________. (Feel free to tell me what it is in the comments.)