The bird population has now exploded at the mouth of the Lester River on Lake Superior. The first 500 upstream yards from the big lake have everything a bird could want … fish … berries … and bugs. Even my local Merlin has now shown up to enjoy the feast (i.e. of birds). One aspect I enjoy about Lester River is I may either walk the bank (stairs descend from 61st Avenue East (dead end road), or walk the ravine’s cliffs. By walking the cliffs I am often able to watch my Belted Kingfishers from vantage points where theydo not see me (i.e. above them). Such was the case this morning when both the male and female were hunting to feed hungry chicks. Soon these young will fledge and come out of their nest hole.

Mr. Belted Kingfisher

Mrs. Belted Kingfisher

And two videos … one from yesterday (Barn Swallow Fledgings)

Northern Flicker taking a bath in the Lester River this morning.

I have been waiting for clear skies for seven days. Some storms on Lake Superior piled up ice at our end of the lake, and then the water froze solid. Two days ago I noticed ice fisherman off the mouth of the Lester River, and I knew this weekend’s cold snap would provide me the clear skies and eventual sun I desired.

This series of photographs start 90 minutes before dawn, and end five minutes after sunup (the sun is not even completely over the horizon). While the differences between pre-dawn and moments after sunrise is obvious, moments prior to actual sunup conditions were changing extremely fast. I often had to run to my next “photoshoot location”, which is no mean feat when you are on ice and plowing through five foot tall snow drifts!

The temperature was pretty consistent … -9F (-23C) and a decent wind to make for a chill factor of -32F (-36C). Thankfully I live about five minutes from the mouth of the Lester River. Thus, while the total duration of the photoshoot was 95 minutes, I never spent more than 15 minutes outside at any one time. For the first image I was 300 yards off shore. The light reflecting off the ice was provided by some flood lights from a University of Minnesota building where I parked my car.

90 Minutes Prior to Sunrise (my favorite image of the sequence … I am 300 yards out on Lake Superior)

25 Minutes Prior to Sunrise (the Sea Smoke in the distance prevented any dramatic rose color which normally occurs about 20 to 25 minutes prior to sunup … a ho hum photo, but I wanted to include the picture as it shows how light keeps changing)

Seconds before Sunrise

Seconds after Sunrise (my second favorite image of the sequence … I have dropped down to sitting on the snow to get the light through the “shark fin” ice)

Five Minutes after Sunrise (image taken obliquely … even though the sun is not completely above the horizon, it was impossible to take a photo directly towards the sun … with my camera angle pointed somewhat away from the sun I have lost the “orangeness” of the sunrise)