All winter long in northern Minnesota we dream of summer and wild flowers. For most of you in North America, wild flowers bloom much earlier than August, but here in Minnesota we are finally experiencing the burst of colors! The end result is nectar becomes easily available for ruby-throated hummingbirds, and those same birds become much easier for we photographers to find! For the third day in a row … hummingbirds (different location every day)

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Molly and I are poised for takeoff. We will spend the next week near the entrance to Whitefish Bay on Lake Superior as volunteer lighthouse keeps at Crisp Point. Given all the work required to get ready, I did not have much time for birding and photography. Thankfully this tree swallow obliged me!

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Back in the 1960’s when I was a young boy the trumpeter swan almost became extinct. Over the intervening 50 years the swan has clawed itself back where several thousand now live in North America. In northern Minnesota I am privileged to often see and hear these noble creatures.

When trumpeter swans fly and sing out, it an amazing sight and sound. Their call truly sounds like a trumpet, and their stretched out necks looks like a medieval trumpet.  For this photo, I was using a very, very long zoom to not disturb this pair of birds … and hiding in some bull rushes. For more information on this largest swan in North America, please link to the Trumpeter Swan Society.

While walking back to my car, I also finally photographed the “bandit bird” (my nickname). For almost ten days I have been trying to get a good photo of a common yellow-throat. Normally these birds would be deep in thickets and marsh making a photograph impossible. Not today!

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Trumpeter Swan

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Common Yellow-Throat