Day 102: Northern Lights to Green Heron Sunrise

May 4, 2014Year 1MN North: Amity, Northern Lightsrichardhoeg@gmail.com

If you are serious about photography, sleep will often be a precious commodity. Last night I was alerted that the Aurora Borealis was shining over Lake Superior. Without hesitation I headed out at 1:45 am to enjoy the display, and take some photographs. Knowing that true darkness ends about two hours before sunrise, at 4:00 am after spending a delightful two hours watching and photographing the Northern Lights, I drove home and got back in bed.

However, after only 1.5 hours at 6:00 am I was out of bed and hiking over to some ponds which had only become ice free within the past two days. The first light of morning … the golden hour … will enhance any photograph and display a bird’s plumage at its best. In addition, I knew that given all the lakes in the region except Lake Superior were still 100% ice covered, migrant birds would be enticed by the four small ponds that were my destination.

I was not disappointed. For 20 minutes I worked myself into position to photograph a green heron without spooking it. I hope you enjoy my heron photo, as well as the other pictures. My first photo is the Northern Lights display with the Aurora reflecting onto the Lake Superior ice!

View this project’s Flickr photo stream. (click upon image to view at full size)

Northern Lights Over Lake Superior

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Green Heron Migrating Through Duluth, Minnesota

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Hey! You! Get offa my pond!

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Green Metallica Mallards

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Morning Bufflehead

Day 101: An Early Morning Tee Off Time is for the Birds!

May 3, 2014Year 1MN North: Amityrichardhoeg@gmail.com

It’s May 3rd, and the ponds on Lester Park Golf Course in Duluth, Minnesota are finally mostly ice free! Thus, shortly after dawn I walked over to the course and investigated what ducks and other birds might be interested in paying their greens fees. It was a fun morning, made all the better by breaks in the clouds and having sunshine appear. For over a week our prevailing weather pattern has been snow, rain, sleet and 35 to 40 mph winds.

This morning’s foursome includes:

Mr Bufflehead … the photo bomber (wanted to be in the photos)
Greater Yellowlegs Snipe … a new species for me!
Pied-Billed Grebe
(and)
Blue-Winged Teals

Hopefully this means more birds will finally be returning north. It’s about time some warblers made an appearance in the northwoods.

View this project’s Flickr photo stream. (click upon image to view at full size)

Photo Bombing Bufflehead (with Blue-Winged Teals & Pied-Billed Grebe)

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Greater Yellowlegs Snipe

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Pied-Billed Grebe (splashes courtesy of Mr. Bufflehead takeoff)

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Blue-Winged Teals

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Mr. Bufflehead

Day 100: Great Blue Heron Rookery Photo Shoot!

May 2, 2014Year 1MN North: Canosia Wildlife Arearichardhoeg@gmail.com

What a great way to spend the 100th day of my year long bird photography project. After six days straight of rain, snow, sleet and high winds, the sun came out for a short while in northern Minnesota. This was all the incentive I needed to hike into a Great Blue Heron rookery which I had been meaning to visit. The snow had finally melted on most of the trail, and after a decent very, very wet and mushy hike I arrived at the rookery.

I hope you enjoy just a few of the photographs I took this morning. It was so much fun to watch and photograph these majestic and glorious birds. In total I spent almost two hours on location including my hike from the trail head. Upon reaching the rookery I spent fifteen minutes slowly moving close enough for decent photographs. I did not want to spook the assembled multitudes, and thankfully effort that was successfully rewarded.

Finally, the entire time I was photographing the herons, a red-shafted flicker was serenading me. I’ve included two photos at the end of the post. The flicker found a mate!