Friends, this beautiful bird is visiting this winter having migrated from somewhere up near the Arctic circle. This snow bunting is in non-breeding plumage and note the feathers around the top part of the legs that protect them from ice and snow. He is walking along the edge of Phantom Lake in Crex Meadows on a beautiful sunny Sunday. til Tomorrow MJ
Friends, this sharp-shinned Hawk is spreading her wings and tail to fly away. I think this image is a “pleasing blur” as described by Arthur Morris and Denise Ippolito in their book by the same name. You can check it out at: https://store.birdsasart.com/shop/item.aspx?itemid=298.
I have been practicing my flying shots and found that using the manual mode, setting the aperture to f8 and the shutter speed to 1/1000, while putting the iso selection on auto, works well on these flight shots. Using a central focus point and panning with the image stabilization on setting 2 is also part of my digital data for this image. Larger birds are best for practicing the panning technique so go out and find a bird. Practice, practice, practice. My goal is to be able to pan the smaller birds of winter, juncos, chickadees and pine grosbeaks. til Tomorrow MJ
Friends, I know I cheated a little by leaving some details in my silhouettes, but when totally dark against a light background they lose that flying delicate feathery look. These are Greater Sandhill Cranes that are gathered by the thousands on the marshes and corn fields around Crex Meadows. They are feeding and resting for a while before another push to southern climes, the snow will eventually drive them from Wisconsin. They keep me outside, hiking, photographing and waiting for the snow, BAH Humbug, til Tomorrow MJ
Friends, this morning we are back at Crex Meadows in Northwestern Wisconsin, where the Trumpeter Swans are passing through on the migration. This beautiful bird is preening her feathers and admiring her fine figure in the lake water. A ballerina balanced on one foot, all she needs is a tutu, this week has been a bit gray in the meadow and we are out walking the young dog and mourning the passing of our old dog. The Meadow colors make life a bit more bearable. Below is an image of the grass colors and the pond where thousands of Sandhill Cranes and Mallard ducks are also gathering to help with the harvest of wild rice. til Tomorrow MJ
Friends, this Red tailed Hawk is not a happy camper. Her hackles are raised on the back of her head and her mouth is open, both signs of a bird who is not happy. As she was stroked by the educator she became quiet and her hackles went back to normal. She is a beautiful mature female buteo and minutes after this photo was taken , she was released back to the wild thermals above Hawk Ridge. I am running out of Hawk images, so I need to return to Crex or go back to Hawk Ridge. Hmmmm, such a lovely decision, til Tomorrow MJ
Oct 17
This gallery contains 5 photos.
Friends, this slideshow is various positions of a Goshawk’s wings as he flies back into the wild. Why so many images of the Northern Goshawk, you ask?, Hawk Ridge is the primary migration banding station for Goshawks, meaning that more Goshawks are counted and banded here than anywhere else in North America. During the fall […]
Friends, This hatch year Cooper’s Hawk is peeking around the corner to see where that clicking is coming from (my camera). I love the various poses of these beautiful birds, especially the youngsters. On a sad note, only twenty percent of these first year birds will live to finish the migration north next spring. The feather ruff around his head and his size mark him as a Cooper and his yellow eye says hatch year bird. til Tomorrow MJ
Oct 15
This gallery contains 3 photos.
Friends, to celebrate my fiftieth anniversary (of my 16th birthday) I adopted this Coopers hawk and released him back to the wild. A friend took this image of my release technique. The bird in flight was an ornery Cooper who bit the educator and no one wanted to adopt him. As the educator released him, […]
Friends, Lake Superior, the biggest of the Great Lakes, and also the deepest and coldest. This is an image of the harbor at Duluth Minnesota with a ore ship coming out of the docks and headed north. These ships can be 1000 feet in length. The fall foliage in Duluth is legendary and this is a view from Hawk Ridge where i have been photographing the fall migration of hawks (see previous blogs) so til Tomorrow MJ
Oct 14
This gallery contains 3 photos.
Friends, these redtails represent the various types of redtails in the air, being released after banding, the left image shows an immature male with lots of white showing, the right top shows a mature female with two feathers growing back into her tail, she must have run into a tough challenge and lost part of […]
MJ Springett 