Category Archives: Year 6

Crescent Moon Snowy Owl

Year 6

For the first time in four days the sun came out yesterday, and after all of our nasty weather, I hoped our local Snowy Owls might come out before sunset. Basically I thought these birds would be hungry, and that state of being will occasionally make nocturnal owls hunt before sundown. Molly was nice enough to drive me over to Superior, and we arrived at 3 pm … 90 minutes before sunset. I was wrong! The Snowies were sleeping, and showed no signs of waking up till just a bit before the golden orb dropped below the horizon.

With all that said, it was a magical late afternoon / early evening. As we were driving home post sunset I spied a beautiful almost sheer white male Snowy Owl. Females have more dark barrings in their plumage as camouflage for when they nest on the ground up in the Arctic tundra. As I was walking back to the car after photographing this bird, I turned to look at the male Snowy one more time. Uff dah! My new position revealed I might be able to photography the owl in front of the crescent moon. Yup!

Crescent Moon Snowy Owl

My earlier vantage point for this Snowy had been utilized to maximize what little light was left in the sky … the sun was down but still behind me. I pushed up the ISO to get some nice photographs.

Snowy Owl (male) at sunset

Same Owl … grooming at sunset

The other Snowy Owl I saw was this nice female. While taking photographs of the bird in the setting sun, I made the mistake of glancing down. I wanted to change camera settings as I suspected the Snowy would finally fly to its first hunting perch of the evening. Right idea, wrong execution. By the time I glanced back up 10 seconds later, the owl was gone. Given the wings of owls make zero sound, it’s silent flight did not alert me. I had been watching this owl off and on for over 30 minutes. I have no idea where it flew. Oh well … seeing two Snowy Owls in one evening is special.

Snowy Owl (female) just before sunset

Surfing … Lake Superior Style

Year 6

Another day … another storm, but the 25 to 30 mph winds out the NE meant waves on the Duluth end of Lake Superior. Our local surfers were quite aware of that situation, and were surfing this afternoon off the mouth of Lester River on Lake Superior. It may not be quite the same as sunny southern California … air temperature: 33F; water temperature: 35F

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Last night before the rains came overnight I visited Glensheen with my wife, my youngest son and his wife. It was a Winter Wonderland with about 5 inches of new snow which had fallen in about four hours. Happy New Year!

Frozen Snow Birds!

Year 6,

Another snowstorm is starting in the Northland. The forecast has us getting blasted with 4 to 8 inches of snow, but more importantly 30+ mph winds off Lake Superior. Earlier this morning my youngest son, Erik, drove me over to Sax-Zim Bog. I thought it would be perfect weather for finding owls … dark, overcast and zippo winds. The owls thought otherwise. However after this storm ends in two days the birds WILL be hungry.

Upon getting home I had a new device to try in my fight against Blepharospasm, prescription swim googles. I did not go swimming, but took a short hike which is something my eyesight has prevented me from safely doing. While I only hiked for 1.5 miles, the goggles created a moisture chamber which allowed me average vision (good vision in my book). The birds rewarded my hike, both down near Brighton Beach and once I returned home.

Pileated Woodpecker as the snow just is getting started. From a photography vantage point you are looking at my top three images … out of 91 that I took in a little over one minute. If you do not use burst mode on a camera these photographs should be a vote in favor of that mode. While I had tons of blurry photographs, I had some nice pics which were in focus with a low ISO (high quality). In addition, the slow shutter speeds (1/15th of a second) allowed me to show the snow as streaming by the bird. In sunny conditions I might have a shutter speed of 1/1000th of a second to freeze action.

Mallards on Ice! All the water except Lake Superior have been frozen for over a month. Every winter hundreds of mallards jam into a small area every night where a stream provides some open water as it comes out from under a highway right next to the big lake (warmed by being underground). Our local raptors tend to learn about this duck bonanza as the winter progresses.