There is a decent Winter snowstorm in progress. This provides a challenge for a person’s photography skills. Light is lower, and snowflakes makes the use of autofocus difficult. Thankfully I was able to find plenty of birds of which to take a picture, but the conditions which could only be described as “yeech” made coming up with an interesting photo a challenge. I ultimately decided to photograph this White Breasted Nuthatch as the contrast of his eye against the white head gave me something to work with in terms of composing a photo. The other birds I could find during this storm had black eyes against dark heads in the middle of low light conditions. Without a bird’s eye in a photograph, the end result suffers.

One other reason this White Breasted Nuthatch was a good photo subject, although during the morning these birds flit around quickly and frequently, I’ve noticed later in the afternoon nuthatches will often stand motionless for significant periods of time. This inaction lessens the photo challenge! Finally, I have been wanting to photograph a nuthatch at this pine tree hole for some time, but never was presented the opportunity.

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

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Down the Hole!

Normally I do not post and add photographs of the same bird two days in a row. However, having a Great Gray Owl establish its territory in your neighborhood is exciting. In the last two days I’ve seen him four times: yesterday at sunrise, midday and sunset … and today sunning in the middle of the afternoon. This bird let me walk within ten yards of him, and never spooked … an amazing experience.

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

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Just like yesterday, I went back at sunset to visit my Great Gray Owl. It turns out there is a new traffic cop in northern Minnesota, and he means business!