I got to bed early last night with the intention of getting up early this morning, so when my alarm went off this morning I only hit the snooze button once. It still took a while to get my stuff together and get out the door, so I wasn’t over to Forest Park* until after 6 am. Things were quiet by the Zoo, so I cruised over to the Muny to check on things there and discovered a wonder world of fog caught in transition from the orange glow of the sodium vapor lights that rule the night and the lightening horizon lit by the rising sun.

As I walked over the suspension bridge to Picnic Island, I paused to look across the water. That’s when I saw the web, coated in delicate pearls of dew. I stopped, set up my tripod and then paused. The jogger whose approaching footsteps I’d been hearing for the previous minute or so, bounded onto the bridge and shook it like a hound dog shakes a rat. It wasn’t until a few moments after the runner left the bridge that the shaking started to subside. I could now get a photo.

A noisy flock of crows passed over, ducks and geese floated on the mist-covered waters of Post-Dispatch lake and a Kingfisher called as he flew by. A great egret made his way slowly over the shoreline with dignified sweeps of his long wings. I watched, entranced by the magical world around me, a world of darkness shading gradually to light. My shoes were soaked by this time, so I made my way slowly back to my car. Here is what I found while I was there in the park.

*America’s premier urban park