Yesterday’s snowstorm is today’s photo opportunity. Even though the calendar may say “spring” on April 17th, the land says “winter”. Other than the streams and rivers which rush down to Lake Superior, snow and ice have a lock on northern Minnesota and the Lake Superior region. This means that the bird migration is effectively blocked at the Duluth end of Lake Superior. Birds find any open water and/or food and wait for the coming melt.

I photographed this immature bald eagle overlooking the big lake at the point of take-off. After the eagle flew, I decided a non bird photo was in order. The Sucker River is about 13 miles north of Duluth near Stoney Point. This is one of my favorite playgrounds in the world!

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

My photograph assignment for today was to take pictures of the first bird I saw this morning. While in the Summer, one would see huge numbers of birds immediately, in the dead of Winter I actually drove 12.5 miles before any feathered friend was willing to oblige. The idea behind my assignment was to force me to photograph in what may be a less than desirable situation, and try to optimize the picture.

Well, I got what I asked for. Today’s photo is of a fishing merganser, I think! This bird was way off shore, and there was not much I could do to make the photo more intriguing! Bird #2 was more interested, but it did not count! I just wish the bald eagle had flown by before the duck! Obviously, a HUGE difficulty with photographing birds is they move around a lot, and as the eagle demonstrated, often partially hide behind branches. I spent 20 minutes chasing each bird trying to get a better photo opportunity. One gets cold when it is -2F with a 15 mph wind. After a while it’s time to run back to the car to get warmed up.

First Bird of the Morning (official project photo)

Second Bird of the Morning (second photo, and does not count!)