Friends, this male Mallard was crusing along the edge of Lake Superior that in January is still not ice-covered. The mallards don’t seem to mind the icy weather. I didn’t like all the leaf debris among the ice so i deleted it with several Photoshop tools, mostly the patch and spot healing brush tools. Sharpened with Color Effex Pro 4 detail extractor tool. I think the image is wilder and the absence of debris is less distracting. To each their own, til Tomorrow MJ
Friends, this seagull is standing on a cement wall over Lake Superior and I liked the image and so will share the original and the altered image in an animated gif. I used a mask to limit my changes to the bird only so I didn’t sharpen the background and make it more noisy. Experimenting with photoshop so I can make adjustments faster and more decisively. Looking at the altered image I may have overdone the feather detail of the belly, but i like what i did with the chest and head. Maybe a 50% mask of the lower part of the bird would help. Hmmmmm. So the image below is a 50% mask on the lower belly feathers so those feathers don’t look like they were combed through. til Tomorrow MJ
Friends, this tiny bird is a white-throated sparrow visiting Hawk Ridge sometime in October. I love the little yellow spot in front of his eye, the image below is a close-up of his head. You can see the new bracelet that the banders have given him . Some of these little birds are captured more than once cause they tend to hang around the bird feeders. Lots of birds follow Hawk Ridge on their migration routes, so maybe Hawk Ridge should be called Bird Ridge. Just kidding of course, the more spectacular birds always bring the crowds. til Tomorrow MJ
Friends, I am very Thankful for the birds of Hawk Ridge and Crex Meadows, who keep me busy photographing the wildness. So back to Hawk Ridge for another Hawk lesson, or in this case, a Falcon lesson. The portrait of the Merlin below shows an open beak and the notches in the cutting edge of the beak that fit together when the bird is killing his prey. These interlocking notches are the tomial tooth of the falcons. Hawks may have the upper notch but do not have the corresponding notch on the lower edge. The higher magnification image shows this region to dramatize the tomial tooth. til Tomorrow MJ
Friends,this morning I am sharing this gull flying free above the Mississippi River. I have been reading some blogs from a website titled craft and vision and that has opened a question as to why we want to share our images with others. A new magazine is available at this site titled simply Photograph. I will be examining my own reasons for sharing in the near future, how about you? Do you share with an ulterior motive or like me, not sure of the reasons for sharing. When I write a blog about nature and the great outdoors, I tend to write to the person(s) who cannot experience and needs to see the misty mornings, glorious sunsets, flying birds and especially the micro world that exists at our feet. But I realize that while my images are probably sufficient for this purpose, my writing skills need to improve. So I will be exploring the writing of the blog to match my photographic visions. til Tomorrow MJ
Nov 1
This gallery contains 4 photos.
Friends, the last day on Hawk Ridge was a wonderful sunny blue sky day and the birds were really flying. We saw 101 bald eagles in 1 hour against a clear sky. They didn’t capture any eagles but, my husband, Jim (jimspringett.com) adopted this young male Redtail hawk and released it. The bird energy can […]
Oct 30
This gallery contains 3 photos.
Friends, these images illustrate differences in individual Northern Goshawks. Both birds are first year hatch birds, both males but the white content varies from white in the right hand bird to a cream color in the left hand image. Both images were balanced with the white in the bird and the backgrounds are very different, […]
Friends, These birds are sometimes foreign to Wisconsin having migrated from the far North. We are Florida to these rough-legged Hawks. I am putting together a book of the hawks that i have photographed from Hawk Ridge this fall during the migration. One specie is being difficult to get a photo, although a few have gone over the ridge, I have not been there when a Rough-Legged Hawk has been in hand. This Roughie was photographed by me in Crex during a recent irruption year, maybe it will be my only photograph. They get their name from the beautiful feathering on their legs that protects them from ice, snow and other hazards of the very far northland. I have three days left to photo this bird, maybe I will get lucky. 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 […]
MJ Springett 