Category Archives: Year 1

Day 161: The Birds of Rainy Lake

As noted in my prior post, Molly and I took an overnight jaunt up to Rainy Lake in northwestern Ontario. This lake is a huge vast wilderness with 929 miles of shoreline and over 1800 islands. In short, it is a perfect location for the outdoor bird photographer. I hope you enjoy just a few of the photos I took over the course of four hours on Rainy Lake including my two bald eagle pictures.

It is worth noting that before starting this 365 day photography project I would never have had the skill to pull off the majestic bald eagle in flight photo. All my camera settings were on manual to optimize this photograph … white balance, shutter speed, aperture, and iso settings. Things worked!

One interesting learning from our afternoon on Rainy Lake was I had no idea that cormorants and pelicans hunted together. On our much smaller NorthStar Lake (1,100 acres) we only have a few pelicans on occasion, and no cormorants.

Bald Eagles rule the waters of Rainy Lake!
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Pelicans and Cormorants fish together
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An afternoon break on one of Rainy Lake’s islands
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Rusty the Wonderdog!
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Herring Gulls hoping for a cormorant egg snack!
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Rapids at one of Rainy Lakes inflows
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160-D4-Rainy-Lake-Sunset-3_wm 160-D4-Rainy-Lake-Sunset-Loon_wmDay is done … Gone the sun (taps)

Days 158 to 161: The Birds of NorthStar Lake (pt. 1)

Our family is “up north” for the fourth of July week. For folks from parts south, hearing someone who already lives in northern Minnesota talking about going “up north” may seem strange. After all, don’t I already live farther north than 99% of the population in the USA?! Everything is relative, and the Hoeg’s are enjoying time on NorthStar Lake. From our lake, one can actually canoe “downstream” to Hudson’s Bay.

In addition to my bird photos, while out kayaking shortly after dawn the second day, I realized I was being watched! The otter family was out for a morning fish, and wondered who the strange beast was in the red kayak!

This post is just “part one” of our trip. Midweek we will take a jaunt up into Canada and spend time on Rainy Lake before returning to Northstar.

Day #158: Common Loon157-D1-Northstar-A_wm

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Day #1589 Common Loon
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Day #159: The Otter family checks me out!
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Day #160: Eastern Kingbird nesting in our cabin’s eaves
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Day #161: Sunrise over NorthStar Lake
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Day #161: Yellow-Bellied Sapsucker
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