Last night’s Super Moon with Duluth’s Christmas City of the North song!
I had been photographing the Aerial Bridge with the Super Moon, and when I went to drive home … Eureka! The Bentleyville folks were testing their lights and the Super Moon was lined up with the Christmas Tree! (video link for blog email subscribers)
We’re only three weeks away from Thanksgiving. I hope the holiday seasons is peaceful and and full of joy for everyone. See beneath the still images for the movie!
Most folks think chickadees are all year round residents, but in fact many, many chickadees migrate a bit further south each winter, while some stay all winter in the Northland. Over the past few weeks I have known that Boreal Chickadees were coming south … many along the North Shore of Lake Superior. How did I know that fact when Boreal Chickadees are normally NOT a feeder bird? My Raspberry-Pi Birdsong listening devices. The listening stations at my house, French River Lutheran Church and my friend who lives near the mouth of the Sucker River suddenly showed lots of Boreals migrating … from zero present only two weeks ago.
I love these little birds, and yesterday I decided to visit a Boreal Chickadee hot spot (the Admiral Road Feeds in Sax-Zim Bog). Another friend put out peanut butter, and for over an hour it was a non stop parade of Boreal Chickadees.
Meet Mr. (or Ms.) Boreal Chickadee!
As a fyi, earlier this week on a very gloomy day the Birdnet-Pi’s indicated White-Winged Crossbills were migrating along the North Shore of Lake Superior in the hundreds. After church I visited some spruce trees which I knew were loaded with cones and was rewarded with lots of sightings of crossbills. Actually I saw hundreds of crossbills. Both examples from this post are essentially non feeder birds. Both species will visit feeders on rare occasions, but it is not common.
When you live up north the amount of daylight gets shorter and shorter during the winter months. Remember, meteorological winter starts December 1st which will soon be here. One big advantage of winter over summer is the sun now stays much lower in the southern sky. I call November, December and January the eternal “golden hour”. During these months the light available for photography is special … essentially the golden hour all day long. The days are short, but the light is nice.
Sunday I experienced a perfect example of this effect. A Ross’s Goose has been hanging out at Forest Hill Cemetery. This rare bird for our migration region has mainly white plumage, which easily gets blown out by the sun while one takes images. For these first two photographs, the sun temporarily came out and the bird was in direct sunlight, but is while plumage did not get blown out. One final note … while the Ross’s Goose is about 1/3 smaller than its Canada Geese cousins, it seemed to be much more aggressive … chasing the Canada folks all over the place!
Eternal Golden Hour Direct Sunlight … middle of the day … Ross’s Goose
More images under cloudy conditions
