March 21, 2012: Promise me that sometime in the next year or two you’ll go visit the relatively new Big Bog State Recreation Area (SRA) up near Red Lake in northern Minnesota. It’s not as far as you think…a quick 200 miles from Duluth. And they have a brand-spanking new visitor center with some great displays about the ecology of Black Spruce bogs. And a flock of Sandhill Cranes “flying” overhead down the main corridor. But the highlight at the Waskish site for the young and young-at-heart is the renovated firetower.

I climbed up the ever-smaller and steeper steps to the top. Calm on the ground, it was howling wind up at the top. Spectacular views over Red Lake (the largest lake completely in the borders of MN and 16th largest in the U.S. at 443 sq miles!). I recorded a short video segment while hunkered out of the wind at the top, hoping out loud that a Bald Eagle would fly by. And within 10 minutes, one did! These images were shot through the fencing at the very top of the firetower. The eagle was so close that I couldn’t fit the entire bird in the frame! But I still think it works. (Don’t tell anyone, but I like the plumage of immature’s more than adults…Scandalous!) Note the eagle’s nictating membrane is closed over its eye in image 2.

Located about 13 miles north of the visitor center is the crown jewel of the park—a one-mile long Bog Boardwalk that lets you experience a Black Spruce bog without getting your feet wet! But it took me awhile to get started on the trek because the dirt parking area was alive with early-emerging butterflies and moths. Thanks to a very mild spring, several Mourning Cloaks, Commas, Red Admiral, and tortoiseshells were out of hibernation a bit early. I also got my best-ever photo of the stunning Compton Tortoiseshell, a large holarctic species, that is also among the longest-lived species at 10 months or more.

For someone who’s tramped a fair number of bogs in rubber boots and headnet, access to the bog itself was not the highlight. The most interesting part to me was the ample natural history signage located along the boardwalk. Most fascinating was the fact that this bog was home to the last remaining herd of Woodland Caribou in Minnesota…and that they hung on to the 1940s. Of course, this was also a scouting trip to examine the boardwalk itself, as this is the type Friends of Sax-Zim Bog (www.SaxZim.org) would like to construct to give birders access to boreal bog birds. It is also built so that the bog underneath will get enough sunlight and moisture and continue to thrive.

Stay tuned! More installments of my NW Minnesota trip coming up.

A quinzhee is an old Ojibwa Indian hunting shelter. When men were out hunting big game in the winter, they necessarily traveled light and brought no shelter with them. The quinzhee could be built in a few hours. First you mound up a huge pile of snow (We did it with a grain scoop; the Ojibwa did it with their snowshoes). Then a few hours later you hollow it out. Continue Reading

Well, a couple weeks after Duluth had 8 inches of snow, we got what may be our first sticking snow of the winter. Duluth was blessed with 11 inches of snow on the hill (and zero down by the lake) and we had about 5 or 6 inches. Cold temps are predicted for this week AND we are possibly getting another snowstorm this coming weekend so this snow may very well stay until March/April.

After church, Bjorn and I went out shooting (He was very helpful by sleeping soundly in his car seat for over an hour…I was even able to listen to the News from Lake Wobegan!). Six inches of wet snow stuck to every tree trunk, branch, twig and blade of grass creating a winter wonderland. I love driving backroads after a heavy snow. Snow simplifies normally blaaah landscapes, sometimes turning them into stunning scenes.

Our first stop was for a perched Bald Eagle on Spring Lake in Carlton County. Her interest was likely directed at several small flocks of Hooded and Common Mergansers that swam near the shore. Eagles are opportunistic, and a crippled or weak duck would make a nice early winter meal. She was a long ways away but one look through the 400mm convinced me that it would be a cool “bird in the landscape” photo. I had to position the tripod so the bird didn’t meld with the background dark spruces. She needed to have snowy trees behind her to be able to see her in the final image. I present two versions of that scene here. The horizontal image would look great printed large…It may be a bit disappointing viewed small as in this blog.

Barns and farm panoramas are also an interest of mine. I love the simplicity of this farm combined with the White Pines, red barn and white snow. I actually desaturated all other colors EXCEPT red in Aperture (not that there was much color anyway). Barns are disappearing and scenes like this may be difficult to find for the next generation of photographers.

Eagle images: Canon 7D, Canon 400mm f5.6, 1/500 at f8, ISO 200, tripod
Barn image: Canon 7D, Canon 70-200mm f4 at 70mm, 1/350 at f8, ISO 400, handheld

No Great Grays…Not even a Hawk Owl up in the Sax-Zim Bog. I did sit near the deer rib cage on Admiral Road and photographed a few Gray Jays and some Common Redpolls. With the last light of day dissolving in the west, I made a pass down Stone Lake Road. And here I found one of those cooperative Bald Eagles that you happen upon occasionally, patiently waiting above an open stretch of stream. I pulled over, rolled the window half way down and started shooting. Of course, I have dozens of eagle shots sitting on a perch…Nice images but boring. I decided to put on the 1.4 tele-extender and get even closer. Just then the eagle broke into a big yawn. I snapped away. The resulting photo looks like a fierce screaming eagle…but now you know the real story!

Canon XTi, braced on car window, f8 at 1/800, ISO 400