The Beginning Bird

Year 2

A few years back I decided to learn more about my camera by taking a community education class. I wanted to “get off auto”, and learn my “apertures” from my “f stops”. Eventually I figured out they were one in the same!

Like many things in life, there is often a #1 … in my case a bird photograph. Surprisingly it was not from northern Minnesota, but two feathered friends I found atop a mountain in the Canadian Rockies, Clarks Nutcrackers. The location was a summit near Lake Louise when there two birds decided to pay me a visit. Thankfully, I had my camera with me and shall we say the “rest is history”!

If you’re a birder and/or photographer what started you down this path? I had always loved birds when a child, but my nutcrackers took me to a new level. I’ve also included my latest photograph of some snow buntings taken while on yesterday morning’s bike ride. Thus, the first and the latest photos in my hobby / obsession.

Clarks Nutcrackers
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Snow Buntings
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24 Hours of Lake Superior Magic!

Year 2, , ,

The  past week has been non stop drizzle, rain, wind and clouds, but yesterday that changed as the sun reappeared, and thus started 24 hours of magic! I live 600 yards above Lake Superior across from a wilderness creek which roars down to the big lake. The combination of Lake Superior, and the fall bird migration is an outdoor photographer’s dream.  The past 24 hours were a dream!

Pre-Dawn at Canal Park … the Buffalo enters the Duluth Harbor
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Sunrise approaches as a Saltie waits anchored out on the lake
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A Bald Eagle takes flight while migrating near McQuade Harbor
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Horned Locks migrate through out area, down from the sub-Arctic
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A Snowy Owl at dusk decides to winter in warm Duluth … a tundra arrival
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The Northern Lights set the sky on fire at Boulder Lake
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Failed Birding Expeditions

Year 2,

The non birder may wonder, why do we do it? What could possibly make a sane human being arise before sunrise, and go out after sunset in search of a bird?! This question might seem harder to answer in light of how many times a birding expedition ends in failure. In short, why do we do it?

There are many possible answers, but in my case the response is simple … seeing the beauty in the world around me. Finding my sought after bird is only a bonus. For instance, today …

  1. Before sunrise I left my home in search of a red-throated loon. These birds migrate through our area having left their northern sub-Arctic home. I walked over four miles out Park Point to the Superior Entry of the Twin Ports Harbor
  2. After sunset I drove down to Duluth’s port terminal. My goal was to spot a snowy owl.

In each instance, I had information that indicated my target birds had been recently seen in my birding areas. However, I was a failed birder. Neither bird made an appearance for me. Before you think the outings were a failure, see my photos for today’s post. Beauty was all around me, just not my desired specific birds

A Superior Sunrise (ocean going freighter anchored out in Lake Superior)
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A Superior Night (ocean going freighter unloading at the Port Terminal)
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A Snow Bunting (a different Arctic bird posed for me this morning)
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