Climb with me over the fallen trees in my immediate neighborhood, the park where I walk every day. Sink your boots with the most delicious sloshing sounds into the mud of the holes that the root balls left, and once again realize the power in nature. Bringing it all down.

Several speculations have been making the rounds why this particular ice storm did so much damage, and the given reasons probably overlap or interact. For one, the drought of the last several years has really stressed the trees and their root system. Secondly, the heavy rains in late fall saturated the ground, leaving the roots in unstable earth. Lastly, the storm that arrived two weeks ago had winds with gusts of up to 60 mph, winds that spiraled for some reason, encircling the trees, rather than swaying them back and forth, which apparently has more power (with even higher speeds those would be tornadoes or hurricanes, with a rotating function.) The ice then did the rest, its weight on the trees felling those that were unstable.

Hundchen not so sure about all of this

For counterbalance, here are a few of the soaring creatures that I photographed on Tuesday – with some others thrown in from previous January/February visits to Sauvie Island, just to marvel at the diversity of migrating visitors. Up they go….

Pelicans, Geese, Swans, Sandhill cranes, buzzards, kestrels. And then there were the bald eagles, cavorting, resting, chasing each other again, and finally getting some lunch.

That really is all for today, I simply do not have much stamina after these outings. But I do have an up & down song by Blood, Sweat and Tears from a looong time ago……

And since we’re already on memory lane, here is Earth, Wind and Fire – I guess all we’re missing is the ice that the storm brought.