MISSISSIPPI RIVER STORIES 2021 #11 - FREEZING OVER


Mississippi River, Brownsville overlook, Minnesota, Nikon Z6II, Nikkor Z 24-70, f/4 S,   @ 70 mm, 1/640 s, f/8, ISO 100

Finally some much colder nights hit the Driftless Area along the Mississippi River. I drove back from a customer visit up north on the Minnesota and Iowa side of the river today. The bays and backwaters with no or little current freeze over very quickly and I saw some people even ice fishing, which seemed a little risky. I stopped at the Brownsville overlook, Minnesota, the same spot where I watched and photographed thousands of migrating tundra Swans less than four weeks ago. If you missed these pictures you can click on the link HERE to still see them.

The swans have of course moved on to the Atlantic coast and the bay is frozen over. It was the sunlight coming through the clouds and reflected on the ice that made me stop. As you can see, we don’t have snow on the ground and it looks like for the first time in 18 years we will not have a white Christmas…