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Friday, March 18, 2011

A New Medium

I should really work on improving my skills in photography before adding video, but it is just so cool. HD Video is a feature I haven't really used on my camera, and for some reason in the gusty winds today I decided to give it a whirl.  My biggest accomplishment for the day was grasping exactly how far I have to go and how much I have to learn.  Out of all the 10 to 200 second clips I took today this was the best one...


Biggest lessons from the day -

Tripod - Handheld 400mm lens taking video is simply not possible.
Setup - Video is clearly not for quick snatches - everything that goes into making a memorable photo seems to be even more important for video.
Sound - The cameras built in mic just isn't going to cut it.  These eagles were squawking away and you can barely here them over the wind in the video.

Saturday, March 12, 2011

Late Arrivals -

Birding around Cass County recently has begged the question - Where are the spring migrants?  While meteorologicaly you might not expect to see the birds of spring - what with snow, ice and freezing daytime temps, but phenologicaly the early spring migrants are a bit late.  I wasn't sure if this was just a "feeling" I had or if actual data backed it up, so I checked the Minnesota Ornithological Union (MOU) website and found my suspicions were correct.  Below is the data from the Arrival / Departures page on the MOU website - filtered for northern spring arrivals expected by today.  From this list I have seen only two of these species - Horned Lark and Northern Harrier


Horned Lark  2-Feb
Common Merganser  4-Mar
Sharp-shinned Hawk  7-Mar
American Kestrel  7-Mar
Common Grackle  9-Mar
Northern Harrier  10-Mar
Red-winged Blackbird  10-Mar
Ring-billed Gull  12-Mar 

Here are photos taken last year of a couple of those early migrants I am so longing to see!

American Kestrel - Cass County 2010

Red-winged Blackbird - noticeably absent from my list this year.

Friday, March 11, 2011

Northern Lights At Last!

Tonight for the first time in years I was able to clearly observe the Northern Lights!  Ever since moving back to northern MN I have been keeping my on - SpaceWeather.com.  This site provides up to the minute tracking of geomagnetic activity and predictions for auroras.  Tonight their Aurora map looked like this.


I didn't want to get too excited as I knew a small winter storm was due to hit at some point tonight but when I got outside I could tell by the warm green light glowing through the forest trees that I might be in luck.


I jumped in my little green car and headed to Man Lake which I knew had some excellent vistas of the northern skyline.  The northern lights were beautiful.  Unfortunately, much of the detail was lost to the high level clouds marking the incoming weather.  Here is what I was able to do with a broken tripod, a cheap 50mm lens and a significant breeze.




The clouds were completely blocking the Auroras after about 30 minutes, but I was delighted with having had the opportunity.  One of my favorite memories of tonight will be of the Cass County Sheriff that stopped and chuckled at me in my pajamas taking pictures of the Northern Lights on County Highway 5!

Saturday, March 5, 2011

Great "Great" Night

Finally, after  two years of looking I found a Great Gray Owl right here in Cass County.  I had decided to take a relaxing drive in the hopes of diminishing the effects of a nasty head-ache.  I headed toward a large boggy area near Leech Lake in the hopes of finding a nice spot to watch the sunset over the bog, I had grabbed my camera in the hopes I might see something interesting but had no intentions of actually "birding".  At the first turn I made of the main highway a large gray lump caught my eye.  It was a Great Gray Owl sitting on top of a spindly 15' spruce.  I quickly grabbed my camera and squeezed off three shots.  I glanced down at my camera to verify I had good settings and a sickness grew in my stomach.  There flashing in bright red letters on my camera's LCD screen, "NO CF CARD".

I couldn't believe it - I had forgotten to replace my memory card after downloading the pics of the Hoary Redpolls from my previous post.  I was able to forgive myself for the indiscretion since the owl was some 150 yards away in a shaded spot with a very busy background.  I was able to forgive myself until the owl flew off of its perch STRAIGHT TOWARD ME, and into the perfect warm evening light emanating from directly behind me.  OMG!!! OMG!!! OMG!!!  The owl came to rest on an exposed spruce branch not more than 50 yards away and now had a beautifully charcoal gray evening cloud creating a perfect background.  It was truly the proverbial once in a lifetime shot and me without a memory card.  I couldn't believe it.

Later that night I also saw what I believe to have been a Great Horned Owl of the subarcticus ssp. but I likely wouldn't have been able to get a picture of this bird as it was viewable for less than a minute.

Last night I couldn't sleep.  I kept thinking about that Gray Ghost - the bird I had been seeking all over the snowy landscapes of northern MN.  The bird I hadn't seen in some 15 years.  The first time I had seen one I didn't even consider myself a birder yet.  I tossed and turned until about 6:30AM - finally I gave into temptation. I begged my wife to drive our son to Basketball practice and drove back to the scene of last nights (for me) tragic events.  This time I was armed with not one but three memory cards totalling some 16gigabytes of memory.

After an hour of searching I gave up.  Realizing that this bird had likely moved deep into the bog I continued on to Federal Dam to photograph the Trumpeter Swans that had moved back in to the frigid, yet open waters of the Leech River.


After snapping a couple dozen shots of the Trumpeter Swans I decided it was time to head back home to catch some zzzz's before having to work the night shift.  Along the road back a large dark bird swooped across the road in front of me.  I slowed down to a crawl but couldn't relocate the bird.  It was intriguing enough that I pulled onto the shoulder of the road and walked back to where I thought I had seen the bird fly in.  I couldn't believe my eyes - some three miles north of where I had seen it the night before there was the Great Gray Owl.






I am happy :)


Thursday, March 3, 2011

More Hoary and an Odd One

There were no less than four Hoary Redpolls under my feeder today.  If anyone is comfortable placing a subspecies identification on any of these photos I would appreciate it.

Hoary Redpoll amongst Commons


Hoary Redpoll

 Hoary Redpoll

Terrible pic of two Hoaries together

I was so intent on watching for and photographing Hoary Redpolls that I missed this apparently aberrant Common Redpoll.  The portions of the bird that should be a pinkish-red appear to be a yellowish orange.  I have seen this "variation" in House Finches, but had not heard of it in Redpolls.  I am hoping this bird is around tomorrow so I can get definitive shots of it.  Given that this bird is out of focus (oof) and in a posture that is not duplicated by another Redpoll in this frame; I cannot exclude the possibility that this is a photographic artifact.  However, I have reviewed hundreds of photos of out of focus Redpolls taken from this location without finding this coloration / artifact.  A quick online search did not return any results for yellow / orange Redpoll variants.  Let me know what you think.

Click on the photo for a larger version.