This gallery contains 7 photos.
i Love these photo challenges: this one is about animals, enjoy, til Tomorrow MJ Click on any image and follow the arrows for a full-sized slide show, thanks
Category Archives: Wildlife
Happy Jay
Friends, this friendly blue jay was questioning my presence near his bird feeder. I love the jays in winter when their colors are one of the bright spots in the woods. We visited a wildlife center yesterday and listened to the wolves howling, they are entering their breeding season and our dog is doing a lot of sniffing on his morning walk. We took a few images of wild wolves in captivity and a pair of cougar sisters(for future posts). A hard place to take good images with all the fencing but we had fun trying. These animals were orphaned as babies and would not have been able to survive in the wild, so they educate school children and adults about their wildness that they have managed to retain. til Tomorrow MJ
Red tail over the Ridge
Friends, went to my photo club meeting last night and each month we vote on our favorite photo for the month. The theme was wild outdoors, and my redtailed hawk won for the month of January. That means that it will be published in the local paper. This redtail was released from Hawk Ridge in October and she had lost two tail feathers that are regrowing. This image was captured as she rose and turned her back on me, then flew back across the ridge. Maybe I have used this image in a previous post, but it bears another look, til Tomorrow MJ
Missy Muskrat
Friends, the morning this was taken, the ice had covered the flowage and this little muskrat was perched on top, munching away on some vegetation that was protruding from the ice. I like the light of the evening sun. These rodents make houses of the reeds and sedges that also stick up out of the ice. They say that the height of these houses predicts the snow fall depths this winter. til Tomorrow MJ
Whitetail water wading
Friends, this female whitetail deer is eating fresh salad in the marsh, she is also trying to escape the relentless biting flies of the northland summer.She didn’t seem to mind that i was observing and taking her photo, too busy chowing down on fresh food. She is probably a young female because there was no fawn following her, this time of year we start to see the youngsters following their mothers everywhere. til Tomorrow MJ
Whitetail Buck -Summer
Friends, this is a male Whitetail deer in July, his antlers are growing and covered with a vascular tissue that promotes the bone growth. They hide in the very dense brush and only the black flies drive them from their cover to the water. They can be seen this time of year taking a swim to wash off the pesky flies. I wish the flies would go away now so I can again travel in Crex with my windows down. Thank goodness for air conditioning for our temps have exceeded 100 degrees F for the last week. Well back to work, til Tomorrow MJ
Weekly Photo Challenge:Create
Friends, I certainly did not create this beautiful Mallard duck but I did create the image from the hundreds of images that I shot sitting above this waterhole. This is one of my all time favorite images of my short nature photographer career. The morning that i took this image, was one of the first nice spring mornings and i was on my way to my previous career. I just had to stop and I was late for work. One has priorities in life, when I was sitting at my desk dreaming of birds flying, I knew it was time to retire from this work and move onto another life. Maybe I was sent this image to convince me that another life awaits after my real job came to an end. til Tomorrow MJ
Hiding in the Grass-Late Nester
Friends, this Common Loon in Crex Meadows is just now sitting on her nest. Two other Loon couples have chicks that are six weeks and 3 weeks old already, will be interesting to mark her progress. Another opportunity to map the chick progress if they hatch and make it through the summer. This day in June was pretty hot, 88 degrees F, so she was panting a little. til Tomorrow MJ
Bald Eagle Portrait
Friends, this a mature Bald Eagle with her chick of this year are sitting on the nest. I have been following the chick progress since about early May, now the chick is getting ready to fly. When both adults are on the nest with the chick, there is peace and harmony, but when the adults leave him alone, the chick jumps around the nest and spreads his wings to make them strong. The bottom image is a composite showing that he is getting lift from his powerful wings, soon he will take flight, maybe today, since the wind has diminished from the 40 mph gusts of the last two days. til Tomorrow MJ
A River flows through it
Friends, a river view in the badlands at the point where Knutson Creek enters the Little Missouri River. This spring the water was quiet and very peaceful, unlike last spring when a hundred year flood had turned this scene into a raging torrent. This river is about 560 miles long with headwaters in Wyoming, moving north into South Dakota badlands, north into the North Dakota badlands and north to empty into the Big Missouri River. My Grandfather tells of escaping a massive flood with his wife and young son on the back of a single horse. In their marriage book, my Grandmother had written “this was damaged in the flood of 1910” . The power of water. til Tomorrow MJ
MJ Springett 