Grand Marais Sunrise Lighthouse Photographic Studies

Year 7

When you are out and about with your camera with the intent of taking landscape photographs, do you find a location and remain stationary? While there are certainly some locations where the interplay of light and the subject demand a preferred location for taking a photo, you are doing yourself a disservice if you do not “move around”!

This morning I was out before sunrise (per norm!) with the intent of photographing the Grand Marais, Minnesota lighthouse. The skies were clearing over Lake Superior, and the dawn was gorgeous. Here are three images I took over the course of ten minutes exactly. I changed locations frequently and the amount of zoom utilized which affected the sky displayed in any one image.  As the saying goes, every picture tells a story … in this case three different stories at essentially the same time.

Photo #1: Grand Marais Lighthouse

Photo #2: Grand Marais Lighthouse

Photo #3: Grand Marais Lighthouse

Red Crossbills Near Gunflint Lake (video)

Year 6

I found a flock of Red Crossbills this morning near Gunflint Lake … just a few miles south of the Canadian Border in NE Minnesota. Assuming a good local food source, Crossbills are one of the few bird species which will mate and nest in the dead of winter. Many of the birds in this flock appeared to be paired off, and by my estimation the pine cone crop looked very good in the area. Thus, I would expect many of these birds to nest soon.

Red Crossbills Gritting Up

Male Red Crossbill

Female Red Crossbill

A Happy Couple

Looking across Gunflint Lake towards Canada (about the only ice free lake in the area because it is deep)

Red Crossbills Video Link

A Fox’s Winter Wonderland

Year 6,

Winter has arrived in the Northland. You may be thinking … hey wait, it is only November 7th! However when the overnight lows for the last week have been 10F, and the highs only reach to the mid 20’s, it’s winter. The calendar is not important.

Today I moved up the shore of Lake Superior, and then inland on the Gunflint Trail. When I say I was remote and in the wilderness today, most folks can have no conception of what this really means. Only on the Gunflint Trail would moose give my car the tongue licking car wash … see my post from last March!

I actually started the day viewing the seasmoke over Wisconsin. Given the cold air temperatures Lake Superior was steaming up a storm. My local mallards were all down on the big lake because all the inland water is already frozen solid. However, the real treat of the day was watching “Red” hunt not once, but twice. During my explorations of the Gunflint this afternoon, I found my Red Fox hunting in the same exact spot fifty minutes apart. At this time of the year, mammals and birds start to hunt the roadside areas. There is more likelihood of catching a meal, and the snow is not quite as deep. I saw the fox make one successful kill during the 15 minutes I watched it hunt.

In total I moved 100 miles up the shore of Lake Superior today. Molly is attending a Northwoods writer’s conference, which allows me to escape into the woods!!!

Red Fox Hunting on the Gunflint Trail near the Canadian Border

Sunrise SeaSmoke Mallards off the Lester River on Lake Superior

Sunset at Grand Marias on Lake Superior