I drove over to McDavitt Road at sunrise this morning. There had been scattered reports of White-Winged Crossbills. I had hoped throughout my multiple stops and walks I would find crossbills, but I could only find these Red-Breasted Nuthatches enjoying seeds for breakfast, or possibly picking bugs off the pines. Within a few hours smoke from Canadian wildfires invaded the Northland. Thus, I knew I had to be out early to enjoy a blue sky. This tool from the US Government is one of the main ways I track smoke plumes (also useful for when Northern Lights are in the offing). Zoom in and Out … allow your location: Fire and Smoke Map. 
Category Archives: Year 11
Polka Power Great Gray Owls!
Occasionally there are fantastic days in life, and over the past two days I experienced some great times after significant life challenges. After all … how else might one term days that start with polkas at 6 am (the Fun Time Polka Party plays Saturday mornings at 6 am on KDAL Duluth), a body which finally is not in too much pain (my surgery and recovery were more extensive/longer than expected), and ended with finding three unique Great Gray Owls (I could hear their owlets begging in the forest, but could never find the juveniles).
As a fyi, I love polkas and Slavic ethnic music. I even play the accordion and when my children were young, we had a family band named the “von Hoegs”. Here is a photo from an earlier era in our family history. Our motto was: “We play for free, and you get what you pay for!” Seriously, we had fun playing at nursing homes, friend’s parties and church events.
The von Hoegs! (left to right … Karen, me, Erik, Molly, and Carl)
Now back to the real theme of this post … Great Gray Owls hunting.
One might note that the weather has been horrible the last two mornings … heavy fog and drizzle to start each day, but these conditions were actually magic in terms of my finding Great Gray Owls. During each night we experienced heavy rains in northern Minnesota, but when the precipitation finally let up each morning (continuing drizzle combined with heavy fog and light winds) the owls were hungry which meant the adults hunted after sunrise.
Anyhow … here are photographs of 3 unique Great Gray Owls. Photographic conditions varied from just plain bad to super lousy (fog and drizzle). However, I found two the owls by hiking, not by sitting in my car and slowly driving backroads.
Great Gray Owl #1 (Observe in the 3rd image in this series just how wet is the owl. All three owls let me stand amazingly close, but I was extremely quiet and rarely moved)
Great Gray Owl #2 (In the second to last image of this series, note how the owl is shaking water droplets off its head. It had just dove into very tall grass after a vole, and thus is quite wet. You may need to maximize the image to see the droplets)
Great Gray Owl #3 (Both days I walked away from the owls and left them after watching the birds for over 90+ minutes. The owl’s mannerisms had me convinced they were done hunting, and who wants to stand in the fog and drizzle to watch owls sleep??!)
It is no mistake that all of my images have pine trees in the foreground and background. I definitely have photos against just a drab white sky. However, even in the worst of photographic conditions there are ways to make images more beautiful and interesting … assuming the wildlife is cooperative!
Northland Sunflower Morning
It is that time of year … Sunflower Time! I arrived at the humble sunflower field not long after sunrise. For the next 30 minutes I enjoyed walking in the midst of the sunflowers. My location was Matten Road in Wrenshall … a delight for the senses. Here is the Google Maps link. I was visiting MK3 Hardwood Farm (Facebook page). While the sunflowers are in their glory right now, birding will become better as some flowers begin to go to seed.
I also decided to take this image pointed directly into the sun. The sunflowers are all facing the rising golden orb.
The farm is well worth a visit. Wrenshall is very near Duluth. You can not help but be in a good mood after starting your morning walking amongst the sunflowers. It’s kind of humorous … my prior post two days ago featured the dark and Northern Lights, and now I am focused upon dawn and sunflowers. God fills our world with amazing colors.
If you are interested in the photography angle of the first two images, both photographs were taken using aperture priority. In the first image I have used settings to blur the background sunflowers, whereas in the second photo I have used settings to bring the foreground flowers into focus. Neither approach is right, or wrong … just different.