I started just north of Johnson Park by the big U-shaped section of the pathway and saw:
1. A snowchain
2. The second anti-Facebook sticker I've seen on the FDU campus
3. A closeup of the ball seen in the prior picture
4. MLK - if only I had waited until a minute later when a bald eagle closely flew by in this frame from right to left.............what a cool shot THAT would have been! Unfortunately, I had already changed my settings and couldn't change back in time to get a shot of it. It would have been my first semi-close image of a bald eagle in the wild. Note: if I had to guess, it may have been one of the nesting pair that's somewhere in the Oradell Reservoir area, since it was flying north along the river.
5. Continuing north, I came across this school bus that looked like it lost a battle with a small pile of snow (I was shooting through a fence with very tiny openings).
6. Behind Bergen Avian Academies, I came across a climbing wall for pigeons. Four of them made it to the top while one lagged below at the penultimate level.
7. Oh, look............a Leafe on a tree
8. As I got up to Route 4, I noticed four green trucks behind the Lukoil gas station..........Junkluggers! This one was full of junk and backed up to the edge where there's a 20-foot drop down to Walkway-level. If anyone walks by there sometime soon and sees a pile of junk, you'll know where it came from (probably Arlo Guthrie, if the City Dump was closed).
9, 10, 11, 12. Out of nowhere, a huge number of geese started flying around the river, landing in the water and taking right off again. They're usually all over FDU on the Teaneck side, but their grazing area was still snow-covered. I have no idea what they were doing, but I never saw anything like it. I was trying to hurry back to the FDU pedestrian bridge over the river to get clear shots, but most of the action occurred en route (the last one was taken from that bridge). Unfortunately, a hundred geese don't make up for missing that bald eagle.
13. I don't know if this is the same guy I photographed carrying a similar-looking canoe on his head while crossing River St a couple of years ago, but I like this shot because of what you don't see - a major highway (Route 4) that's between the foreground buildings and the background multi-family dwellings that are on the other side of Route 4 by Riverside Square.
14. 56 degrees and snow
15. The lack of foliage reveals an interesting sky shot.
16. During the walk, I saw many squirrels that wouldn't let me get anywhere near them for a shot, which is normal. After my last time there, I posted a shot of a squirrel who was staring at me from behind some fencing. I took lots of shots and it never moved, which was very unusual. On Sunday, I saw two squirrels chasing each other from tree to tree at high speed - impossible to shoot, but interesting to watch. All of a sudden, one of them stopped on a section of branch and directly faced me. Usually, as soon as I move my arms to bring the camera up, they take off. Not this one. I took multiple shots. Could it be the same one as last time? It reminded me of Hammy the Hawk, who always seemed to pose for me on my A/C a few years ago.
If this happens a third time, this squirrel will officially be known as "Hammy the Hawk food".
Click to enlarge.
