Would you like to swing on a star,
carry moonbeams home in a jar?

Or would you rather be a duck?

With my apologies to Bing Crosby (YouTube Link) and others for the slight change to the lyrics, I believe the answer to the question is “no”! I took these photos this morning at the mouth of the Lester River on Lake Superior. The wind was gusting to almost 40 mph, and these redheads really did not want to migrate one foot farther north. Their landing spot was about 50 yards past the end of the pack ice which has this end of Lake Superior (Duluth) slammed in with ice even on May 12th.

• View this project’s Flickr photo stream. (click upon image to view at full size)

The sun is rising earlier and earlier. I now must get to Lake Superior by 5:30 am. However, the effort of getting out of bed by 5 am is worthwhile. Here are two photos taken at sunrise this morning at the mouth of the Lester River on the north shore of Lake Superior. The ducks are buffleheads.

• View this project’s Flickr photo stream. (click upon image to view at full size)

Takeoff of the Dawn Patrol

———-

Ice Flows at Dawn!

I worked hard for this photograph. There were 40 mph winds, clouds, light drizzle, ice and gray reflecting water which made for horrible photography light conditions on the shores of Lake Superior. However, a red-breasted merganser is a beautiful duck.

I finally found this guy resting which allowed me to:

• Hide behind some huge boulders to somewhat protect me from the wind and thereby enable hold the camera steadier
• Allowed me to move behind a boulder down on the shore while the merganser was submerged so as not to spook him
• Enabled me to take three pictures to combine via HDR and thereby help me handle all the shades of white, gray and bring out the merganser’s eye

I hope you agree this is a pretty bird in a beautiful frozen environment.

• View this project’s Flickr photo stream. (click upon image to view at full size)