Two Owl Species, a Warbler, Eagles, and Swans For the first time ever I have photographed a barred owl and a great horned owl on the same day. I have had days when I recorded images of a saw-whet owl and barred owl, but never a barred owl and a great horned owl. I …
Two Versions of Contrast Regular readers of my thoughts know that I really enjoy fog, except when driving. Fog makes for moody, ephermal compositions that seem to stay in my memory much longer most photos created under typical lighting conditions. When I woke this morning to thick fog, I knew I wanted …
What A Difference A Day Makes Yesterday the sun was out in full force, a blue sky greeted us in all directions, and people were outside and happy. Today it was cloudy, drizzling, and I saw only one person out (at Sweet Marsh). Even the critters were hard to find. If it hadn’t been …
Prairie Bathing A friend of my recently published a book title “Forest Bathing” that talks about the health and psychological benefits of time spent in the outdoors. I agree wholeheartedly with Suzanne’s thoughts. For years I have been practicing my version of “forest bathing” or outdoor bathing or whatever formal name …
Fungi, Macro Scenes, Birds, and a Little Heat Wow, what a day of doing things (alone and away from all others). My day began with a long hike to check on the heron rookery I found yesterday. Actually, I wanted to see if I could find the nests again today after stumbling …
Scenes From a Hike Due to not so nice weather conditions – gray sky and drizzle – I did not go on the water today. Instead I enjoyed a walk in the woods. Walks in the woods this time of year can be rather uneventful. Few, if any wildflowers have popped up …
It Has Been A Couple of Years According to my photography database, I see red-breasted mergansers maybe every couple of years, and sometimes even less often. Today was my first sighting of the bird species for 2020. When I saw them, the two mergansers were not real close, but they were near enough to …
Stories Without Details During a brief walk in a local timber this morning I noticed the difference in “nature noise” from what I normally hear when paddling my kayak or walking the dikes around Sweet Marsh. Instead of hearing the endless honking from Canada geese punctuated by intermittent duck quacks or sandhill crane calls, …
New Arrivals and the Regulars Fortunately I headed out early this morning for a little wildlife time since the rest of the day was a blur of activity – important activity. At Sweet Marsh the new arrivals were American white pelicans and double-crested cormorants. The regulars were American coots and scaup. …
Waiting for One Image (and others from the day) Nearly every evening, sometime between 7:00PM and 8:00PM, sandhill cranes arrive at the south end of Sweet Marsh from points unknown. The arrival of some cranes elicits loud, boisterous responses from other cranes while a number of birds can drop from the sky with no …