Fall is an excellent time to go birding in your local cemetery. If that burial ground has a pond, so much the better. Migrating birds often make use these areas, and become somewhat acclimatized to cars. Use your vehicle as a roving blind, and do no get out of the car. One is often able to get much closer than normal to wild birds.
Hooded Merganser Flock at Forest Hill Cemetery
Black-Capped Chickadee (two different birds … apparently a favorite branch for cracking open seeds … once I figured that out I just waited till a chickadee flew into position for a photograph)
Yesterday was a foggy wet day. In fact it has been wet, windy and foggy for some time. When God gives you apples, make applesauce! No birds are migrating in this junky weather, and the low light is generally not a photographer’s dream. However, the combination of water and fall colors in beautiful.
My house is just below the final bridge on 7 Bridges Road. Amity Creek roars down to Lake Superior over 500 feet in this sequence of images. Birds tagged on my blog with the word “Amity” were taken in this area near my home. The final images of the waterfall and footbridge are 250 yards from my driveway. In the winter my cross-country ski workouts end by skiing across the footbridge (built by the Civilian Conservation Corps in the 1930’s).
From the waterfall Amity Creek still descends 100 feet further to Lake Superior. Seven Bridges Road was built in the very early 1900’s. Until you get down below Bridge #7 there is no development on the road … just the Boreal Forest and the 7 English Stone Arch Bridges.
We will now work our way downstream along 7 Bridges Road …
Lady Aurora danced last night, but never gave us a full performance. She seemed coy and shy … hinting at bigger things but never coming through. Still … it was a beautiful night out under the stars. My Northern Lights page has instructions (map) at the very bottom on how to find this location which is about 20 miles north of Duluth, Minnesota.
