Author Archives: mjspringett
Afternoon with the Yellow Rumps
Dear Friends, yesterday we were again in the sharp tail blinds and after downloading all the images, i went to crex to see if i could get lucky, have to do your homework in the spring. Since a few flies had hatched, i thought it was time to look for warblers and sure enough, these yellow dumped warblers had returned to the northland. They move very quickly and after 90 minutes of fast shooting, i went home exhausted. This little male was busy protecting what he perceived to be his territory and was chasing off one female while allowing another to remain, he had clearly made his choice. til Tomorrow MJ
Sunrise Dancing
Dear Friends, our second morning on the Namekagon Barrens Sharptail Grouse Lek was warmer than our first morning, 47 degrees F and lots of sun. The male birds were dancing furiously and herding the females. I think the males have a control issue as they need to move the female, but when she stops, all the male birds around the lek, freeze in their dancing position and don’t move a feather until she moves again. Curious behavior that we had not seen before, but never had six females on the lek before either. The golden light of dawn makes this a really warm image, but that is the way it is, so enjoy til Tomorrow MJ
Morning in the Blind
Dear Friends, Wednesday was our first morning in the blinds of Namekagon Wildlife Area to watch the Sharp tailed Grouse dancing in the spring mating ritual. Not our first ever morning in these blinds , but the first this year. This male is almost in dancing position, but had stopped momentarily to give some verbal commentary. The morning was lovely but chilly, lots of sun and soon the birds just laid down and soaked up the sunshine, most of the real dancing took place just before dawn before there was enough light to photograph. Topped the morning off with breakfast with two friends from the cities then out to Crex to spend the rest of the day, perfection. til Tomorrow MJ
Afternoon with a Flicker
Dear Friends, spring has finally come to our northland and lots of outdoor activities to keep us outdoors. This Northern Flicker kept me company for a couple of hours this week while i kept my eye on a fresh wolf kill to see if anyone would return to the crime scene. When i first drove up i thought i saw a dog shape creeping away, but he did not return. I liked the high key treatment to reflect the brightness of our early morning sun. Excitement in the Crex Meadows as the ducks and other birdies are returning to find some nesting sites, til Tomorrow MJ
More Experiments
Dear Friends, this is a composite image resulting from 40 images taken with macro lens and a focus step approach, even at f16, the depth of focus was not sufficient to render all the details in this tiny group of green crystals, so i step focused with my Camranger and put the images together with photoshop, this tiny crystal cave is an area of about 1 square mm and the color of the rock around the crystal was a surprise, do you like? til Tomorrow MJ
Ruffed Grouse
Dear Friends, this cocky fellow was stalking the ditches looking for a girl grouse, he was constantly flipping the feathers of his ruff, thus his name ruffed grouse, or as known around our household, ruffled spouse, love that joke, til Tomorrow MJ
Experiment
Dear Friends, i am getting desperate, the weather has been cold, windy and drippy, don’t want to get my camera wet so i have been staying indoors, this is not the true frozen photographers spirit, but soon the sun will shine again and i won’t have to resort to indoor photoshop, but while i am indoors, i am learning some new (to me) tools in photoshop. This was the result of transforming some ovals from a picture and skewing the results as multiple transforms were done, still learning, til Tomorrow MJ
The Bog in the Namekagon Wilderness
Dear Friends, this is the black spruce bog in Namekagon Barrens that is now free of snow and the roads are getting in better shape for the upcoming sharp tail grouse dancing season. Yesterday was a wonderful cool dry blue sky day in the Barrens and i enjoyed my visit. I searched for agates and found two, one as big as my fist. I visited the Lek sites and the blinds are now in place. as i sat on the east blind, i saw three wolves hunting in the burned area to the northwest. This would also be east of the north blind, so be careful out there. soon we will be watching the grouse dance, til Tomorrow MJ
Chasing Northern Lights
Dear Friends, last night we were out in Crex Meadows chasing the northern lights and we arrived to this show, the clouds were lower than the lights and one small red light in the distance is probably a tower light, all in all we were pleased to get anything and the light show must have been very strong to shine through the cloud cover, the lights made an appearance over the cloud tops and the stars overhead were magnificent, til Tomorrow MJ
The Hairdo
Dear Friends, this female Common Merganser was found on the open water at Red Wing Mn. I love her hair, mine kind of resembles this in the morning before the brush tackles the mess, getting it cut tomorrow and a new permanent, til Tomorrow MJ
MJ Springett 