Manasquan Reservoir hike, March 2014

Saturday after seeing the snow geese flocks I went with my friend Pastor Chris on a walk on the trail at
Manasquan Reservoir. The reservoir has a flat, cinder trail running a little over five miles. We started from the Chestnut Point trailhead and went east around the lake. The flat and forgiving surface was kind to my injured right ankle and heel, so kind in fact that I overdid the mileage and was limping the final quarter mile to the car.

Aside from the beauty of the frozen lake, we had many birds to see. Robins, grackles, bluebirds, ducks and

swans drew Chris' attention - he is a fine wildlife photographer. I don't have the skill or the patience to get birds on the wing, so I stuck to photographing the bald eagle nest. Normally the nest is hidden by the trees, but with the foliage missing it was easily visible from the walking path and across the water. Look for the mass of sticks in the distance, slightly left of center. Chris used a high-power lens to get photos of the head of the eagle in the nest; this is as close as I could get and still keep a good image.

Our walk was a three mile out and back, and as I wrote I was sore and limping on the final stretch. However, it was worth it to photograph the sunset over the frozen reservoir. The lovely colors were literally the calm before the storm, as winter storm "Titan" would arrive 24 hour later. Titan turned into Tiny as far as snowfall totals, but it did give us a nice sunset, and some above freezing weather for our walk.