Sky problems
Friends, This beautiful morning on the way to the Wolf Center in Ely Minnesota, the temps were around zero F, so frost was very heavy near Lake Superior. The bottom image is of the same region. I have globs of something on my sensor that will not clean off with the sensor cleaning kit, also the dust delete software solution by Canon has limited range of removal capabilities. Found a Photoshop solution that seems to work with these images, make a duplicate layer of the background, run the filter/noise/dust , set the level to 30-60, this will blur the image significantly but will also get rid of globies, now put a mask on this layer and paint with brush to get back the detailed areas, cool , it works, til Tomorrow MJ
Timber Wolf-Luna
Friends, this female timber wolf or gray wolf is Luna, from the International Wolf Center exhibit group. She is the only female with three male animals in the enclosure. Spectators can view through huge glass windows and stay warm inside when temperatures outside are below zero F. She is very dark colored and representative of 3-5 % of gray wolf population who are black or nearly black. Her dark color soaks up the sun and she sleeps soundly in the sunshine. til Tomorrow MJ
Minnesota Surfing??
Friends, these brave souls are surfing on Lake Superior in February. They usually surf here at Stoney Point but not this early, the lake is open this year and the surfers are having a ball. They even have a surfing report on wave size and wind speed here, and the day we visited about 4-5 surfers were sliding on the water. There are also some u-tube videos here if you look up stoney point surfing. The water temp is 34-5 degrees F and the surfers are clad in neoprene from head to toe, Brrr, I say, til Tomorrow MJ
Icy Lakeshore
Friends, this icy sculpture was found at Stoney Point on Lake Superior yesterday. We were owl hunting but found no owls. The temperature was near zero Fahrenheit and the wind carried slivers of ice. But this formation was irresistible to the photographer within me, the waves were moderate and occasionally broke over the top of this ice. The shutter speed of 1/5000 was used to freeze the water splashes. This morning the temps are even colder and we are in a lodge on the shore of the Big Lake. til Tomorrow MJ
Winter Light on Lake Superior
Friends, this is Lake Superior in the winter, but a very thin cover of ice. We are going north again today to celebrate our 17th Anniversary, a little early but we felt the need to go owl hunting. Trying out my new landscape lens, I love the early morning light on the Lake, so til Tomorrow MJ
More Gray Owls
Friends, this Great Gray Owl was one of the many who migrated south in the winter of 2005-2006, they came south looking for food and such a migration is called an irruption. They say the owls are irrupting again this winter and we did see two on the way to Two Harbors Minnesota on Saturday. It was a sunny day so the yellow eyes did not show on our recent images, this owl and the one in the image below were taken on overcast days, so the yellow eyes were visible and the owls were very photogenic. til Tomorrow MJ
The rest of the story
Friends, this Great Gray Owl flew out of a tree directly at me, at the last second he banked away and this image above was the result. I think I ducked and he landed in the snow beside me, the image below was taken as he rested in the snow watching me, I wonder if he had been fed by the banders that in 2005 were roaming the bogs of Minnesota trying to determine the state of health of these birds that irrupted to the south. Maybe he was expecting me to produce a mouse or other small rodent. After a few seconds sitting on the ground, he flew back to his tree. Definitely a close encounter of the wildest kind, til Tomorrow MJ
Great Gray Flight
Friends, yesterday i showed you some Great Gray Owls from 2005, yesterday we saw two on our way to Ely Minnesota to visit the International Wolf Center. Yesterdays birds were facing the sunrise so their eyes were very squinty, but this one flew right at me on a cloudy day, so yellow eyes were dramatic. She flew straight at me and landed in the snow a few feet away, look at me for a few seconds while i leaned on the motordrive, then she flew back to her tree. til Tomorrow the rest of the story MJ
Winter Owls
Friends, this is a Great Gray Owl from the land north of here, they sometimes migrate to the Sax Zim bog in the winter. This image was captured in 2005 when we had an irruption of owls from Canada to the northern Minnesota/Wisconsin area. I am processing with Photoshop with techniques that i have been practicing lately, blurring the background and sharpening the foreground, gives this bird a better isolation as the subject of the photo. I love their bright yellow eyes that appear a bit cross eyed, maybe i was too close for the bird to focus correctly, hence crossed eyes. Great Grays are large by bird standards but they are mostly feathers. The owl in the image below is all fluffed up against the -20 degree day. A few owls migrate every year, but 2005 was special. til Tomorrow MJ
Wily Coyote
Friends, this is a wily coyote from the WSC in Forest Lake, and again a captive animal. This male was adding his two cents worth to the wolves howling with some yipping and yapping. Many books have been written about the clever”trickster” of native legend, but the best in my estimation is God’s Dog written by Hope Ryden, This researcher did her homework well and has written a definitive work on the natural history of coyotes. til Tomorrow MJ
MJ Springett 