Tag Archives: MN North: Mouth of the Lester River

Day 096: Photo Duck Day on the Lester River!

Year 1

Today dawned cold (35F), windy (35 mph steady winds … gusts to 50 mph), with rain. In short, it would normally be a fantastic day to stay inside and keep warm! However, a year long photography project means that I had to venture outside. With a groan and some comments about the weather I said good-bye to my wife.

I know the key to finding any kind of birds today would be finding locations that shielded my feathered friends from the elements. After striking out at several locations I struck pay dirt at the mouth of the Lester River. The water rushing madly downhill and into Lake Superior had created enough open water to overpower the ice being pushed ashore by the strong NE winds. Given the ducks were not interested in flying, they let me get closer than normal. Not only were the numbers of ducks impressive in this small area, but quite a few different species were also present.

Photographing the birds was difficult because I was getting the full brunt of the wind, but I happily stayed down on the shore for well over an hour enjoying the “great weather”. You will find each of these birds included in today’s photographs.

  • Buffleheads
  • Common Mergansers
  • Goldeneyes
  • Pied-Billed Grebe
  • Red-Breasted Mergansers
  • Red-Necked Grebe
  • Seagulls

Guess it shows one should never let a little nasty weather keep one indoors!

Lester River Preening (Red-Breasted Merganser and Seagull)
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Ducks Dancing (Red-Breasted Merganser and Bufflehead)
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Take Off (Bufflehead and Goldeneyes)
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Flock of Buffleheads
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Common Merganser
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Pied-Billed Grebe
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Red-Necked Grebe and crew!
096-Birds-365-Red-Necked-Grebe 096-Birds-365-Red-Necked-Grebe-and-Bufflehead

Day 093: Photo of Kingfisher Rock

Year 1

Sung to the tune of Sonny and Cher’s song, And The Beat Goes On … the new hit northern Minnesota song … And The Snow Goes On, and The Snow Goes On! This photo was taken at the mouth of the Lester Rive about 1/2 hour after the reputed sunrise during a snow squall this morning. My low light photography practice during yesterday’s snowstorm paid off during this morning’s white stuff! I caught this kingfisher and mallard enjoying some beautiful spring weather!

093-Birds-365-Kingfisher-Rock
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Post Update: The snow which started yesterday morning finally stopped around 10 am this morning. The sun actually trying to come out! Hooray! A few minutes ago the first warbler of the year appeared in our yard. Perhaps spring may finally be arriving. This yellow-rumped warbler is a welcome sight today!

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Day 092: Low Light Bird Photography – Goldeneyes Take Alarm

Background,

Today dawned ugly. In short, the best course of action would be to snuggle up in front on the fireplace. Here in northern Minnesota, we are experiencing a late season snowstorm with upwards of six inches of snow predicted. When you add the snow to the wind, and the remaining snow and ice, why would one want to venture outside in this Lake Superior region?!

Answer: To improve one’s photography skills!

Please understand that birds have this nasty habit of never remaining still, even when you believe they are at rest. While some folks find that aperture priority is the recommended starting point for bird photography, I disagree. Birds are high energy athletes constantly on the move. Thus, I start with the premise that one needs a shutter speed of 1/1000th of a second for fast birds, and 1/640th of a second for slower (big) birds. It is worth getting to know your custom settings. For today’s photographs I was using total manual settings. This meant I was scaling my ISO up to my camera’s top setting (3200) and often using a expsoure setting of 1/1000th of a setting. I then forced the aperture to F4.0 and a white balance of “cloudy”. Did I mention it was dark out, and often snowing hard?! Thus, I needed to increase the sensitivity of my sensor by increasing the ISO speed. After all, regardless of the bad weather, the birds did not sit still!

These two photos of the Goldeneyes were taken at the exact moment they saw me, and were not impressed with the sight!

The other two photographs are of the waterfall across the street from my home. The State of Minnesota was actually out measuring the water flow of Amity Creek in the middle of the snowstorm. You are looking at 432 cubic feet per second! Last week before the spring meltdown really got under way the flowage rate was 160 cubic feet per second.

Sound the Alarm! Goldeneyes Take Flight
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Amity Creek – The Deeps (above and below)
The-Deeps-Snowstorm-Above The-Deeps-Snowstorm-Below