Today is a milestone … my 50th day of taking photographs of birds. I had hoped for a dramatic photo, and towards that end I had cruised up and down a favorite tamarack pine forest well noted for snowy and grey gray owls. Unfortunately I struck out, but did enjoy having this Canada Jay which fly down to get some gravel only a few feet away from me upon the dirt road where I was standing.
Back in late January friends told me the location of a Northern Hawk Owl. For about a week I often checked upon this bird, and discovered his favorite pine tree for enjoying some late afternoon sun. However, over the intervening 5+ weeks, I had not returned to check on this bird.
This afternoon I wondered if my owl might still be in the same territory, and hopefully might consider raising some baby hawk owls. Given a bright sunny afternoon, I made an excursion to check on the “favorite tree”. As you can see, he (or she) is still there!
Yesterday with the exception of one lone goldeneye, only the mallards had rediscovered that the Coast Guard Cutter Alder had broken the ice in the Duluth Ship Canal. Today the goldeneyes moved in, and they put on a stellar performance. I had hoped this might be the case, and had held off doing any bird photography this morning in hopes both the sun would come out, and the ducks would perform. I was lucky on all counts. Enjoy all the photo sequences. Burst mode photography is a wonderful asset.
Flapping Wing
———-
Diving Sequence #1
———-
Courtship: Two’s Company … Three’s a Crowd!
———-
Shake, Rattle and Roll
———-
Diving Sequence #2
