Oct 7
This gallery contains 12 photos.
Friends, these are things that make me happy, click on any image to see the captions and full-sized images in a slide show. The right and left arrows direct you through the show and the small x in the upper left hand corner returns you to this post. Enjoy , til Tomorrow MJ
Friends, this big blue heron is set on the grass background in a really high key image, nice start for a Monday morning. Having my coffee and thinking about the day. Family may come first today, but if everyone is ok, then Hawk Ridge and sitting in a camp chair in the fall sunshine might be the order of the day. I need some more hawk portraits. til Tomorrow MJ
Friends, i am showing a closeup of a greater Sandhill Crane head cause i think they are so beautiful. The Big Blue stem grass makes a great backdrop of their native habitat. Crex Meadows is a gathering place for thousands of cranes as they stop here to feed on wild rice and the farmer’s corn crops. In the evening they land on traditional roosting grounds and in the morning they fly off again for food sites. Their gurgling calls keep us company until the snow flies and the marsh freezes over, then they are off to better weather. Below image is a summer crane who is joining in the festivities. til Tomorrow MJ
Friends, this Great Blue Heron is fishing alone . They don’t like company when they are seeking food in the lake. A solitary figure for our weekly photo theme: solitary. He stalks the shallows along the shoreline and with a quick jab catches a small fish which he swallows whole and head first. He has been in Crex all summer and i see him in the same area every day. He has some rust stains on his blue feathering from the water. til Tomorrow MJ
Friends, some fall grasses going to seed in Crex Meadows. I think the grasses are almost as pretty as the flowers you just have to get very close to see their beauty and get the light behind them to bring out the colors. This Indian grass (top) and Big Blue Stem (below) are indicators of a tall prairie eco system, and they both grow 4-5 feet high in parts of Crex exposed to full sunshine. Big Blue Stem has a turkey foot shaped seed head at the top of a dark stem as seen in the image below. til Tomorrow MJ
Friends, Hawk ridge yesterday, but no birds. The sky was almost clear when i got there, but a storm blew in and covered my car with pea-sized hail. After the storm, i shot some fall foliage cause the sumac was gorgeous up on the ridge. More experiments with moving the camera during the exposure. I think this looks like a watercolor. Below is an experiment with the under layer moved and the top layer more sharp, a paper birch changing its clothes. til Tomorrow MJ
Friends, We had our first hard “Freeze” last night announcing the arrival of fall. This image is a true “fall image” of Crex Meadows, the Greater Sandhill cranes coming in for a landing on the marsh. I think they look like little parachute jumpers coming down to earth. Soon the marsh will be alive with thousands of Cranes calling to each other and all talking at the same time, they are such special birds. Too bad they don’t stay with us all year long, but their arrival makes the fall a busy place for us wildlife photographers. Then with the first snowfall, they are gone. 😦 , leaving me sad and faced with ice and snow for 4-5 months. Below is an image of the color that is invading the Meadow, the sumac is one of the first to change from green summer finery to fall red. Going to Hawk Ridge today to get some more hawk portraits. til Tomorrow MJ
Friends, this young red-tailed Hawk is perched on a birch tree branch in Crex Meadows. This is about as close as you can get to these birds when they are in their natural environment. I also have images of him from the front and you can see his white bib and splotched belly band that marks him as a red tailed. We had some frost last night and temperatures down to 25 degrees F, so fall is technically here. Below is an image of the red-winged blackbirds gathering for their trip to the south. til Tomorrow MJ
Friends, this close-up shows the juvenile Northern Harrier facial structure. He was captured at Hawk Ridge in Duluth Minnesota and banded. While the educator had him in hand, i shot his portrait. This bird has a facial disc that helps to concentrate the sounds of prey very similar to owls. His rusty coloring will change to gray as he ages. His antics around the Crex Meadows are especially evident in the fall as he hunts the migrating birds and ducks. He circles low over the cattails looking below for prey, then dives down to catch them in his talons. Below is a Harrier hunting over Crex. til Tomorrow MJ
Friends, This Bald Eagle is a mature adult and was hunting dinner on Fish Lake. They do a lot of gliding while hunting and are easier to photograph due to the lack of wing flapping. The shutter speed only has to freeze the glide and not all the wing flap motion so a slower shutter speed is adequate, slower in 1/1000 not the 1/1600 that i have to use on the wing flapping, a small difference but a whole aperture stop. More practicing shooting the flying birds. Today i will visit Hawk Ridge again and try for more raptor flying shots. til Tomorrow MJ
MJ Springett 