Blog Archives
More Singing
Friends, this is my best meadowlark singing, I think it is the decisive moment with the feathers in motion. Those of you who have never visited the Dakotas in the spring have not learned of the spring wind that is always blowing and the meadowlarks continue to sing regardless. This one sang for us within feet of our vehicle and we listened to his cheery song. til Tomorrow MJ
Weekly Photo Challenge:Patterns
Friends, the feather patterns of the sharp tail grouse are stunning when you can see them up close and personal. Most are white triangles edged in brown, and serves as great camouflage against the brown brush of spring. If the birds are not dancing and just sitting still, they can be very hard to spot especially in the light before dawn. til Tomorrow MJ
Birds of a Feather?
Friends, A solitary bird will often try to hide when a car approaches. This Horned Grebe was splashing around inside a massive flock of Coots that was trying to stay out of the wind. No discrimination among the birds, the coots seemed to accept this grebe as one of their own, maybe because they all have red eyes, til Tomorrow MJ
Dancing Grouse
Friends, the sharptail grouse are dancing on the Namekagon Pine Barrens. This boy is just getting ready to dance, his eyebrows are raised and the feathers are rolled back to expose his purple airsac , in the image below you can see his sharp tail is raised and wings spread just a little. When he is really dancing, his head will be down and his feet will be stuttering so fast that they blur. Sat in a blind with my good friend (thanks Anna) on Saturday morning, lots of male dancing and carrying on, then on to Crex to make a 12 hour work day. til Tomorrow MJ
Mister Ring Bill
Friends, the ring neck ducks have arrived and the lake ice is breaking up, hurraaay!!!, I think this duck is mis named, i always call them ring bills because ring neck is what pheasants are called in this part of the country. So to avoid confusion, i call them ring bills and this is a male bird. Photographing them in exactly the right light is the key, also i love his feathers on top of his head, makes him look very alert. He dives for his food and is usually wet. til Tomorrow MJ
First Blue of the Season
Friends, this Great Blue Heron is the first that i have seen this spring, so technically maybe i can call it spring, He is strongly backlit, but you have to take what you get when you are very tired of snow and ice, this bird sighting really lifted my spirits yesterday, there is still snow but this little stream is open so he was searching for food. I pushed the image a bit in magnification so you could see his blue lores, black cap and two black pigtails streaming from the back of his cap, sorry for the complicated background, I think I am a little rusty, til Tomorrow MJ
Roughies
Friends, I went to Crex Meadows yesterday, the temperatures reached 27 degrees above zero Fahrenheit, almost balmy but with the wind I still needed my jacket. The meadow is full of Rough-Legged Hawks and i saw at least 10 of them in my trip. They like to sit in the top of dead tree snags and when I get near they almost always fly away immediately. So this image is a hawk taking off. The outline around their wings and the dark patches at the wrist are id marks for this specie. If you look closely you can see the feathers that cover their legs, helps to keep them warm. The image below is also a take off from another twig in a treetop. til Tomorrow MJ
Nuthatch color correction
Friends, this nuthatch is supposed to be white under his chin , but somehow he has turned pink. In the bottom image I have corrected his color by using a levels layer, using the white eyedropper in the levels window, click on some of the white under his chin, move the dropper area til you have a decent exposure. Then using the black eyedropper, click on the black region under his tail. Like magic all the colors are corrected. 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
Brown Creeper II
Friends, again I am showing a Brown Creeper from the northern Minnesota bog.This is a very tiny bird and get most of his food by probing the bark of mature trees. He starts at the bottom of the tree and spirals around the trunk until he reaches the top, then he flies back to the bottom of the tree to start again. This bird is resting briefly before he starts another upward foray. I like his slightly curved beak and camo coloring that blends with the tree bark. Enjoy, til Tomorrow MJ
MJ Springett 