Ice Pack Goldeneye Edges Out Sleeping Snowy in the Snow

Year 3

Ice Pack Snowstorm Goldeneye leads off day #1 of my 7 Day Nature Photography Challenge and edges out Sleeping Snowy Owl in the Snow!

Here in northern Minnesota fellow photographers are challenging each other to the 7 Day Nature Photography Challenge which requires one to post an nature image every day (current or old picture). I have tweaked the 7 Day Nature Photography Challenge in that I am requiring all my images to be from the current day. The challenge was actually welcome as I was bemoaning the weather forecast which has 7+ days straight of cloudy, snowy weather … not a photographer’s friend. Now I look at the forecast as a challenge and fun activity!

Thus, here are today’s winner and loser … as selected & photographed by me during today’s snowstorm. Both birds were cooperative both in terms of being almost motionless which was a major plus given the low light, and that they stayed in place long enough for me to use manual focus (auto focus might have bounced off the snowflakes).

Ice Pack Goldeneye in a Snowstorm
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Sleeping Snowy in a Snowstorm
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Drowsy in Duluth: Snowy Owl

Year 3

Two years ago I started this blog on my wife’s birthday. My initial post for this blog was about a Snowy Owl which was hanging out near our Duluth home. In the intervening two years, while somethings change and my dear wife is two years older, we still are enjoying Snowy Owls near our home!

Had fun, if you can call watching a Snowy Owl sleep for 30 minutes with occasional bursts of wakefulness, watching Drowsy in Duluth this afternoon. Happy Birthday, Molly (read her blog).

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Dumb Luck Birding: Ivory Gull

Year 3

As many of you know, an Ivory Gull has been hanging around Duluth, Minnesota for two weeks. On the second day it was present, I was privileged to view and photograph the bird including some neat flight images.

I had a few minutes before a business meeting this morning and I decided to stop by Canal Park. Not a single bird was in sight when I arrived. Suddenly I spied motion directly above my head. At that point, the rarest bird in the lower 48 lands ten feet away from me and proceeds to walk even closer. Apparently I was standing next to an offering of fish which I had not noticed, but the Ivory Gull knew the fish was on the pier.

Sometimes it just pays to be lucky! LOL!

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Ivory Gull Photographs
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