Yard Bird. Northern Shrike!

Year 6

I first noticed this Northern Shrike on Wednesday before the snowstorm. I wondered if it had found my bird feeders, and was now taking advantage of the situation. This morning I discovered the answer to my question is a definite yes. It took a run at a mourning dove (unsuccessfully).

My tweety birds had better watch out, a new guy is in town! It was fun to watch it hunt. I was amazed that the shrike was willing to announce its presence by singing, which is what originally attracted me to it a few days ago. While I am familiar with the rasping call of the shrike, the more melodious sound I had never heard. When that song appeared in my yard on Wednesday I looked around to find the source. It was familiar to the second song down in the list on this Cornell page on shrikes.

I hope to get some real close-ups if the bird sticks around for the winter. There is certainly plenty of prey to hunt.

Sunrise Over the Arctic Riviera!

Year 6

I have been waiting for clear skies for seven days. Some storms on Lake Superior piled up ice at our end of the lake, and then the water froze solid. Two days ago I noticed ice fisherman off the mouth of the Lester River, and I knew this weekend’s cold snap would provide me the clear skies and eventual sun I desired.

This series of photographs start 90 minutes before dawn, and end five minutes after sunup (the sun is not even completely over the horizon). While the differences between pre-dawn and moments after sunrise is obvious, moments prior to actual sunup conditions were changing extremely fast. I often had to run to my next “photoshoot location”, which is no mean feat when you are on ice and plowing through five foot tall snow drifts!

The temperature was pretty consistent … -9F (-23C) and a decent wind to make for a chill factor of -32F (-36C). Thankfully I live about five minutes from the mouth of the Lester River. Thus, while the total duration of the photoshoot was 95 minutes, I never spent more than 15 minutes outside at any one time. For the first image I was 300 yards off shore. The light reflecting off the ice was provided by some flood lights from a University of Minnesota building where I parked my car.

90 Minutes Prior to Sunrise (my favorite image of the sequence … I am 300 yards out on Lake Superior)

25 Minutes Prior to Sunrise (the Sea Smoke in the distance prevented any dramatic rose color which normally occurs about 20 to 25 minutes prior to sunup … a ho hum photo, but I wanted to include the picture as it shows how light keeps changing)

Seconds before Sunrise

Seconds after Sunrise (my second favorite image of the sequence … I have dropped down to sitting on the snow to get the light through the “shark fin” ice)

Five Minutes after Sunrise (image taken obliquely … even though the sun is not completely above the horizon, it was impossible to take a photo directly towards the sun … with my camera angle pointed somewhat away from the sun I have lost the “orangeness” of the sunrise)

Caution! Photographer Playing in the Snow!

Year 6
  1.  We are in the midst of a snow storm.
  2. Schools are cancelled.
  3. Shoveling round #1 is complete.
  4. This photographer has a new toy (Go Pro Hero 7 Black).
  5. What does this all mean?

Playtime on my local Nordic ski trails!!!

You are seeing my very first efforts with my new GoPro. Years and years ago I was a GoPro pioneer. When I wore the camera everyone thought it was a weird headlamp. No more! Last week GoPro had a great discount on the Hero 7 which was further enhanced by another $100 off if one traded in an old GoPro camera. Jackpot! I have entered the new action camera era. Aside from enhanced image quality, the improvement I love is the ability to issue commands all by voice (really nice in a cold winter climate).

Thus … two videos and a time lapse (one bird also!). The two videos are 100% unedited, and I did learn how to tweak the time lapse a bit in post processing. The videos are all very short.

The Skier (wearing a GoPro chest mount … all my old mounts work!)

Walk to the Lester Amity Ski Trail (300 yards from my house)

Skiing in Fresh Snow (enjoy the mittens perspective … you will see some snow flake smudges in the upper right corner of the video … sorry about the up and down … Nordic striding forces me to move my body a lot, and thus the camera)

Time Lapse: Skiing Home on 7 Bridges Road (176 images)

Snow Junco!