On the 367th day, I did not photograph a bird, but I did take pictures of a lot of dogs!
This afternoon I drove north of the Stewart River to watch the John Beargrease Sled Dog Race. The mushers are now racing through the wilderness night. This race (300+ miles) is a qualifier for the Alaska Iditarod. We saw the mushers at one of their only two road crossings this afternoon.
John Beargrease Sled Dog Race
I had planned on taking today off from birding and photography, but what is a person to do when a rare northern visitor alights on the ground just a few feet from one’s living room window! Thus … a Hoary Redpoll … the visitor from the northern Tundra, and a snowbird in northern Minnesota!
It begins … Year #2! However I do NOT intend to take a bird photo every day! 🙂
Today’s photographs are dedicated to my wife, Molly Hoeg, on her birthday. I had promised not to take any bird photos today, and when I first got up this morning, that seemed like an easy promise. The weather was ugly with freezing drizzle. Unexpectedly the skies turned deep blue. Our weather forecast was for gloom, drizzle and light snow all day. I texted Molly and asked for special dispensation! The photo conditions combined with my friend, Kelly J the Owl, were perfect! I had been trying for almost four weeks since I first found this Northern Hawk Owl to photograph it hunting during bright sunny conditions.
This series of photos also demonstrates why you must use fast burst mode on your camera. Northern Hawk Owls are very fast. In the dive sequences the photographs are micro-seconds apart. I also have plenty photos of clear blue sky, without any owl! My exposure was 1/1600th of a second. Anything slower and this bird would be a blur.
