We have entered the time of the year when the “Golden Hour” never ends. As long as the sun has risen for the day, the harsh overhead light of mid summer is gone. In fact, as I enter this post at 12:30 pm, the sun is at its zenith here in the Northland … 20% above the horizon. (Golden Hour is a term photographers use to define perfect light … normally in points south the hour after sunrise and before sunset).

Photography presents other challenges in the winter including staying warm, and dealing with the harsh reflective glare of brilliant white snow. Yesterday up in Sax-Zim Bog it was a balmy 11F, which actually is warm compared to mid winter temperatures in our future.

This morning I took an early season tour looking for Snowy Owls throughout Superior, Wisconsin. While Snowy did not appear, I enjoyed time out on Wisconsin Point, and finding this Rough Legged Hawk at the Superior Middle School. While I prefer the perches I find outside of town, this hawk has learned to be “people tolerant”.

Wisconsin Point / Superior Entry Lighthouse

Rough-Legged Hawk

As I noted in yesterday’s post, the south wind was bringing Bald Eagles north, and had the prospects of encouraging Snowy Owls to head back up to the Arctic. It is a time of changeovers. I was able to find one Snowy Owl yesterday afternoon … I had been watching four. Enjoy these final (?) images of this winter’s Snowy Owls. (see Snowy Owl flight maps from Project Snowstorm)

Late yesterday afternoon I looked outside and noticed my local trees were looking quite windblown. I had planned on looking for Great Gray Owls just before sunset, but any bird which hunts by hearing would find the conditions difficult. Wind whistling through the trees is noisy which makes hearing voles running beneath the surface of the snow almost impossible. Great Grays during windy conditions often do not hunt at all … hungry or not. Expending energy with little chance of success is dumb, and drains life energy.

Thankfully Snowy Owls hunt by sight, and as long as the wind is not too strong it is possible to find them on the tops of tall trees, power poles and light poles. After an hour of searching I found this immature male a bit before sundown.