Lynx, Martens & Bears … Oh My!

Year 3,

Yup, just another day in northern Minnesota! Actually, even by my standards this is a pretty awesome day. A few minutes after sunrise found me on a remote wilderness road near the Canadian border in northern Minnesota. Appropriately enough, this road is named Tomahawk Road and it reaches 18 miles into the Superior National Forest northwest of Isabella, Minnesota (not to far south of the Canadian border).

Within the first mile I discovered a pine marten foraging for its breakfast. A few miles further down the road I had a fantastic find … a Canada Lynx … both animals are lifers for me. Here is a pic of the marten (no image of the lynx)
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One of the reasons I like this region is it allows me access to the Pagami Creek Wildfire area. Now that we are about six years post fire, the forest is reblooming and teems with wildlife. When I reached my hiking destination near Isabella Lake, I became the subject of some curious Grey Jays. I think they were checking me out, rather than vice versa. I also enjoyed seeing some Spruce Grouse during my drive in to my trailhead.

Grey Jays … Duck, Duck, Grey Jay (oops, I mean duck!). Seriously these two birds poked and prodded each other … seemed to be playing! The second two “jay photos” show all the burned out white pine trees.
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Spruce Grouse on Tomahawk Road
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One I got home to Duluth, this spectacular day continued. See the photo I took of a snow bunting at the mouth of the Lester River. These birds which are now migrating down from the Arctic spook oh so easily; yet this individual struck the perfect post for me on the Lake Superior shore.
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My day finished off with a HUGE black bear raiding my feeder. I watched from less than ten yards away as Mrs. Bear enjoyed my bird feeders.

Crescent Moonset

Year 3

Last night at 10 pm it was 55F (13C), clear and no wind. Early November in many years means the lakes in northern Minnesota are beginning for form ice, but not 2016. The result of the this ridiculously warm weather means the late migrants are staying up in Manitoba and Ontario, where the lakes are also ice free.

Given the heat wave and lack of birding opportunities, I have started to stalk the harbor front  at night. I took this photograph of the Lee Tregurtha, a great lakes freighter, as it loaded coal at Midwest Energy in Superior, Wisconsin with the crescent moon setting behind her. Kind of neat that I just heard a presentation yesterday about the Tregurtha and her sister ships at the Gales of November Conference . This event is sponsored by Duluth’s marine museum, and is always a fine event.crescent-moon-freighter-paul-tregurtha

A “Superior” Morning … Photoshop is not a Dirty Word!

Year 3

A lone fisherman looks out over Lake Superior shortly after sunrise as the Edwin Gott steams past the Two Harbors, Minnesota breakwater. The James Oberstar may be seen in the distance, having left Duluth earlier in the morning. A “superior” morning!

Now … yes, I did use Photoshop Elements for this image.

  • Did I change the color? No.
  • Did I change the exposure? No.
  • What changes did I make to this image?

My edits to this photograph were minor, but important. Other than some small sharpening to increase clarity of the image, my main edits were judicious use of cropping. If you have digital zoom turned on for your camera, please turn it off! Post processing with an “in focus” image allows the photographer to decide via cropping to better tell the desired story, or a different story. Thus, why use digital zoom, when one may always crop later in post processing better tell your story. Remember, a good image tells a story … thus a “superior morning” (as in Lake Superior 15 minutes after sunrise)

Here are two different crops of my image. I like the first crop better as it brings out the fisherman, the second freighter in the distance, the ore boat’s wake and birds. The second image still is nice … with some foreground and a buoy.

Image #1
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Image #2
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