Rossini Road Wilderness – Solitary Sandpiper! (videos)

April 21, 2016Year 3MN North: Rossini Roadrichardhoeg@gmail.com

This morning I found a Solitary Sandpiper along the banks of some ponds on the Rossini Road Logging Trail. Somehow the name of the sandpiper is appropriate, “solitary”. Although this dirt road is only 30 miles north of Duluth’s Lester River Bridge, it is a true wilderness experience. For the past several days I have birded the excellent habitat (meadows, ponds, wetlands, and forest), but with my particular favorite being some ponds about 1/2 way between the start of the road and Pequaywan Lake Road. In addition to all the birds, I have seen snowshoe hares, porcupines, and even a timberwolf! My ponds have been a bird magnet for a number of reasons:

Lakes to the north are still iced over
Lake Superior to the south is cold … less available food
The ponds have lots of Spring life … singing frogs, budding trees, and bugs! The birds appreciate this oasis of the warmer weather which will soon be present across the Northland

I actually needed some help with ID’ing the Solitary Sandpiper, and with some help from some local birders (Ryan and Mike), it was actually pointed out to me that my sighting was the farthest north of any Solitary Sandpiper this spring migration in all of North America! Cool!

In addition to my shorebird friend I have had fun getting to know some bufflehead and ring-necked ducks. I hope you enjoy some of my images taken over the past few days on Rossini Road.

Solitary Sandpiper

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Ring-Necked Ducks

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Bufflehead Ducks

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Taking Photos With Super Zoom Cameras & Image Post Processing (Canon SX60)

April 17, 2016Background, Year 3MN North: Minnesota Pointrichardhoeg@gmail.com

Over the past few months many friends have asked me what camera I use for taking my wildlife photographs. The answer, although not expected, is I do NOT own an expensive DSLR with an even more costly ($8,000+) zoom lens. Instead I own a Canon SX60 Super Zoom Bridge Camera (Amazon link, read reviews for opinions other than my own).

On December 17, 2018 I purchased a Canon SX70. See my review of that camera.

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The optical zoom on this camera is 65x which computes to a 1365 mm lens equivalent. The rest of this post will review how I take and post process images. This information is relevant for super zoom bridge cameras made by other manufacturers (Sony, Nikon, Panasonic, etc), in addition to the Canon SX60. While anyone would love to have an expensive DSLR and lenses, the difference between investments is HUGE. My Canon now lists on Amazon on the date of this post for about $450. If you are willing to step down one current model for any manufacturer, super zoom / bridge cameras may often be found for much less money. Research the differences between the most current two models for a given manufacturer. Sometimes the upgrades in the latest model may not yield an increase in photographic image quality. If the new features are ones you can live without, purchase the older model!

Remember, as with any camera, good photographs are the direct result of the person behind the camera. If you do NOT know how to utilize the intricacies, and understand the strengths and weaknesses of your own camera, it is unlikely you will consistently take good photos. Get off your camera’s AUTO setting and take lots of photographs. Through failure one learns and ultimately succeeds!

Very Important: Most of my landscape / northern lights photographs are taken with a Sony A6000 mirrorless camera with its kit lens. This camera is great in low light, and also does not cost a fortune. Will review it at a later date. This review applies to wildlife photography where having a zoom to get close to wildlife is very important (my SX60)

Taking Photographs

Days with strong light help super zoom cameras take great photos
Days with low light limit the ability of super zoom cameras to take good photos
Do not use “auto”
Turn off camera raw. Only take JPG images.
(taking camera raw images greatly slows down burst mode … a HUGE disadvantage)
Always use burst / continuous shutter release mode … birds move fast
(have the camera NOT try to refocus between shots)
Never use Digital Zoom (turn it off … do post processing cropping … the equivalent)
Always use a monopod
(fully zoomed it is almost impossible to take a steady shots w/o using a monopod)
On bright days, use shutter priority with a setting of about 1/1000 of a second
(freezes the action of most birds while holding down the ISO)
On dark days, use aperture priority (lowest possible setting) with a max ISO of 400
(you will need to find motionless subjects/birds … forget about flight shots)

Remember these camera settings are ONLY recommended guidelines. Depending upon the bird, the amount of sunlight, clouds or shade, I vary my settings.

Given these settings, I will come home from an birding expedition of a few hours with anywhere from 50 to 500 photographs. My first step after offloading images to my computer is to make a quick quality decision on each photograph. After my first pass I normally have 5 to 25 images remaining. I now do a second pass and delete even more photographs which normally results in a final 3 to 15 photographs upon which I will perform post processing.

Image Post Processing Using Photoshop Elements

Open Photoshop Elements (I use version 12 … do not need latest version)
Open the image in Camera Raw (do not need “raw images”, use JPG
Move Clarity Slides to about +40
Open the image for editing (button on Camera Raw window)
Move Shadow Settings about +12
Move Highlights Settings about +12
Crop as desired (use original image aspect ratio)

The aforementioned items are normally all of the post processing I perform. I do not add things into an image, change backgrounds, change or enhance colors, change white balance or exposure, remove branches, etc. Essentially I like to keep the image close to what came out of the camera. The items I edit tend to enhance a bird’s plumage / feathers (i.e. helps see the details and/or the delineation between borders/edges)

Here is the female Merlin I photographed yesterday on Minnesota Point. I have provided images which document the entire editing processs, the original (unprocessed) through each subsequent image in the editing series. I have also included commentary noting the action I took in Photoshop Elements. These images have not been watermarked. I wanted readers to have full resolution photos. Feel free to download and view on a good monitor.

Remember these recommend Photoshop Elements are guidelines. Depending upon the bird, the amount of sunlight, clouds or shade, I vary my adjustments, but these are the items with which I work 95% of the time.

Original Photograph

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Clarity +40 in Camera Raw
(assits in bringing out details, but darkens photograph a touch)

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Clarity +40, Shadows +12 in Photoshop Elements 12 Editor
(assists in bring out out darker details)

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Clarity +40, Shadows +12, Highlights +12 in Photoshop Elements 12 Editor
(assists in deepening/strengthening colors)

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Clarity +40, Shadows +12, Highlights +12 & Cropped in Photoshop Elements 12 Editor
(assists in slightly enlarging the subject … too much cropping can create digital noise)
(assists in focusing the viewing on the desired subject of the image)

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Original Photograph One More Time (untouched … compare to immediately above)

Merlins Mating at Dawn .. or .. Tales from the Northwoods!

April 16, 2016Year 3MN North: Minnesota Point, MN North: Rossini Road, MN North: Western Waterfront Trailrichardhoeg@gmail.com

Two days ago it was a red fox which snuck up on me while birding; yesterday a coyote checked me out, and today it was Merlins mating at dawn! One had to wonder what tomorrow in the Northwoods will hold!

The spring bird migration is finally now in progress along Lake Superior. Minnesota Point (Park Point) is a gauntlet of these fierce falcons which songbirds have to fly on their way north. These Merlins follow the migration north, feeding on the tired birds.

This couple may have decided to stay in Duluth this summer. The hike from Sky Harbor Airport out to the Superior Entry is beautiful walk, and you never know what wildlife will make itself known! I actually found these Merlins yesterday afternoon, and this morning before dawn I started my hike out to the same location in an attempt to get some “nice light” pics . Even I was surprised when I captured their mating on camera. When I arrived at the same deadwood snag this morning it was faith that made me point my camera skyward. Nary a Merlin was in sight, but I had “faith” that the falcons would reappear on their favorite snag.

Capturing this pair falcons actually involved lots of hard pre-work. For almost a week I had been visiting the end of Park Point wondering when the migration would really get started. A few days ago as songbirds started to appear, I started hiking out to the end of the point. My hikes helped me identify good habitat and eventually this pair of Merlins. Finally, this morning I had to drive down to the end of Park Point and start my walk before sunrise (6:15 am). Thus, I was in position when the sun came above the horizon and my pair of falcons decided to get amorous in the early morning light. (video of the female screaming may be found below)

Yesterday was an excellent day in addition my afternoon research hike on Minnesota Point. Dawn saw me north of Two Harbors on Rossini Road. Over the course of the winter I had driven this remote logging road a number of times. My inspection made me believe that when the deep snows melted, the habitat of wetlands, meadows and forest would yield good times. My research was rewarded when I found a coyote searching for breakfast rodents, a snowshoe hare, and lots of migrating ducks and songbirds.

Late morning saw me hiking along the Western Waterfront Trail on the St. Louis River in Duluth. Once again, prior research yielded good results with finding a Townsend Solitaire deep in the thicket of trees next to Kingsbury Creek. All in all, it has been a great few days in the forests of Northern Minnesota … these Tales from the Northwoods are true!

The female Merlin a few minutes prior to the big event!