Pink or Red
Friends, this pretty pink bird is a male Pine Grosbeak found in the winter bog. His beak is designed for seed eating and he loves sunflower seeds at the various feeders found in the Sax Zim bog . These birds are migrants from further north and there seems to be more of them in the bog this year than in previous years. Just my reflection not an actual fact. I don’ like the background so I have added an image with edited background, i think it is better for the bird colors. What do you think? til Tomorrow MJ
Peanut Butter Bird
Friends, this Gray Jay is popping pieces of frozen peanut butter like popcorn. I laughed out loud when I saw this image. This image was taken at a bird feeder station where all kinds of birdie treats were put out for the northern bog birds. The Sax Zim bog is famous for winter owls that migrate here from the northern regions and is located west of the mighty Lake Superior. The larger birds are attracted by the abundance of smaller game and the seed-eaters are attracted by the coniferous trees that produce cones filled with seed. til Tomorrow more bog birds, MJ
Brown Creeper
Friends, this tiny bird is a Brown Creeper, the first time I have seen one of these birds. He is foraging in the bark of this tree, but he was also sampling the suet feeders that were attached to this tree. I love his coloring and notched tail. His very quick movements made him a challenge to photograph. On our recent trip to the Sax-Zim bog bird sanctuary, our friend pointed out this bird to us, Thanks John. The quotation below was reprinted from the Cornell Birding site.
The naturalist W.M. Tyler, writing in 1948, captured this species’ energy and fragility in a memorable description, “The Brown Creeper, as he hitches along the bole of a tree, looks like a fragment of detached bark that is defying the law of gravitation by moving upward over the trunk, and as he flies off to another tree he resembles a little dry leaf blown about by the wind.” I could not say this better, til Tomorrow MJ
Snowflakes
Friends, these are the same image of a snowflake processed with different software. The image on the left was processed with filters from Photoshop and the one on the left was processed with Color Effex Pro4.
I like that CFP4 has much fewer steps to achieve a better result, at least for me, more shades of gray I think. What do you think? til Tomorrow MJ
Duluth Lighthouse
Friends, this small lighthouse guards the canal entering Duluth Harbor on Lake Superior. This image is a high dynamic range (HDR) from three exposures to better capture the icy lights and darks. The ice and snow have not closed the lake and shipping goes on. The bottom image gives you a scale of the canal, with an ore ship of 800-1000 feet long entering the canal. The canal is a pair of concrete barriers that ships have to navigate to enter the harbor. So the opposite extremes of Lake Superior, cold and warm. til Tomorrow MJ
Weekly Photo Challenge: Illumination
Friends, At first I didn’t like this set of images, but when i started working with Color Effex Pro 4, I found new color and details in this image. The light was behind me and illuminated the front of the anvil. The glowing metal on top of the anvil that was being worked started to tell me the story of this image. The blacksmith was working the metal and the blur of his hammer was the story. It was Christmas time at a historical site near our home and this Smithy was making some decorative metal for his wife’s Christmas, long ago and far away, the spirit is the same . I love the orange and blue combination. til Tomorrow MJ
Immature Eagle
Friends, This immature bald eagle was trying to have a little snack on a roadkill, but i was patiently sitting across the road and he remained in this tree until i went away. smart bird, but he was still snacking a few days later when i passed again, but I had taken this image so I did not stop. The ponds and lakes are all frozen this time of year so his fishing food source is not available. Bald eagles will scavenge what food is available and an occasional deer carcass means survival. His varied feathering marks him as a juvenile bird. The bald eagle gains his all-white head and tail over a period of five years His pate is turning a white but still has a strong eye stripe and a dark bill. I am not a birding expert so I will not venture a guess at the age of this eagle. til Tomorrow MJ
Motorboat Mallards
Friends, this image did not need much in the way of photoshop and i loved the wake behind and ahead of the birds. They are swimming very fast after a fellow mallard who got some bread from people feeding the ducks. Reminds me of the saying, “be like a duck, calm on the outside and paddling like mad under the water” My father always thought that was a wise saying and as i was a wall flower when i was growing up, I took faith that the paddling would get me where I needed to go. so I am still paddling. til Tomorrow MJ
Beach Cleanup
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
Weekly Photo Challenge:Illumination
Friends, I know it’s not the Christmas season, but these lights follow the theme. Illumination to light up the night and the holiday season. And more practice on my animated gifs, til Tomorrow MJ
MJ Springett 