I really enjoy the exercise of picking my Top Ten from the previous year. As I peruse the “4-star” files, it gives me a chance to reflect on the adventures and misadventures, the misses and successes from the previous year. While the duties of being the father of a 3-year old and 1 1/2 year old has kept me close to home, I’m still fairly satisfied with the results. My point? You don’t really need to travel to Africa, Antarctica or Alaska to make stunning images. Start in your own backyard! The sunflower/raindrop shot was taken 20 feet from the front door!
Nine of the Ten were taken within 85 miles of home (Wrenshall, MN)
Six of the Ten were taken within 35 miles of home
Three of the Ten were taken on our land or in nearby Wrenshall

Here they are in reverse order (Hey, you’ve got to build excitement!)

NUMBER 10

This is the only photo of the bunch that was taken further than 85 miles from home; This perturbed Canada Goose was defending territory on my mother-in-law’s pond in Galesburg, Illinois. The light was perfect, it is tack sharp, and there is behavior. The goose’s open beak makes the shot. It also shows that common and familiar birds can still make great subjects.

NUMBER 9

Okay, I didn’t actually click the shutter of the camera for this shot…It was taken by my Bushnell Trophy Cam trail camera. And it’s not that great of a shot…BUT, I included it because 2011 was the Year of the Trail Camera for me…And this Bobcat was only 100 feet from the house. I’ve never seen a Bobcat on our 5 acres but the trail camera has recorded them on more than a dozen nights/days. It just goes to show how many subjects may be near by but never seen.

NUMBER 8

Another oddball choice, but I really like this picture. It is a HDR (High Dynamic Range) image created from 3 separate photos taken at different exposures. I’ve always loved vernacular architecture—old buildings, gas stations, city halls, school houses, barns—so this abandoned farm caught my eye as I was taking a “long cut” home through Pine and Carlton Counties.

NUMBER 7

I got very wet taking this images of a Le Conte’s Sparrow in the Sax-Zim Bog 40 miles NW of Duluth. It was just after dawn and this guy was singing away, intent on attracting a female even though it was late in the breeding season. Dew covered every blade of grass and I got drenched as I made my way closer and closer to the songster in the old hay-field. Le Conte’s Sparrows are not common so I was thrilled that he let me get within 20 feet. In fact, he was still singing when I backed off and returned to my truck.

NUMBER 6

A surreal landscape (icescape?) of bushes encased in a thick layer of ice on Stoney Point between Duluth and Two Harbors on Lake Superior. Taken at sunset but looking east…I much prefer the pink and blue of the eastern vista at sunset to the gaudy 🙂 oranges and reds of the west.

NUMBER 5

I love the position of the wings in this shot of a juvenile Red-tailed Hawk. Yes, I wish it was an adult, red tail and all, but I’ll take it. Hawk Ridge; Duluth, MN

NUMBER 4

Pine Grosbeaks only visit the “tropical south” of northern Minnesota in winter. They nest in Canada. Their pinkish red feathers are stunning in the snowy woods. But this was actually taken in our local city park only five miles from home!

NUMBER 3

It is possible to have flying birds and the moon in focus without resorting to Photoshop! Taken in late October at Crex Meadows, Wisconsin…a major stopover in their migration south.

NUMBER 2

A very rare phenomenon…the “wavebow” was captured along the North Shore of Lake Superior in March. I just happened to be driving by and saw this scene. I pulled over and scrambled down the embankment to fire off a few shots before it disappeared. It is in the latest issue of Lake Superior Magazine as a two-page spread.

Drumroll please….NUMBER 1

Probably the photo that took the most time to get…I shot hundreds of images over a two week period to get this shot…And I finally got it right outside our front door! The time between a raindrop/dewdrop building up to critical mass and falling from the petal is milliseconds. The editors at the Minnesota Conservation Volunteer also liked it and it ran in the Nov-Dec 2011 issue.

If I get motivated I may do more “Top Tens” of landscape, birds, mammals etc. But I do hope this motivates you to do your own Top Ten images.

Finally, a cooperative Snowshoe Hare! These guys have been on my “hit list” for a long time. After completing their transformation from brown to white in early winter, they normally just disappear into the snowy landscape. And when you find one, it is often difficult to get a “clean shot” as they normally stick to dense brush and “dog hair” young Balsam Fir stands.

I found this gal (?) bounding down the road in front of me in northern Minnesota’s Sax-Zim Bog. Her leaps must have been three feet vertical and ten feet horizontal as she tried to outrun the black beast (my Subaru)! I kept on going thinking her last dash into the willow brush would be the last time I saw her. But, optimism is the wildlife photographer’s best tool, so I turned around. Fortunately, she had decided to freeze right along the road. Motionless she sat as I eased out of the driver’s seat. I crawled around to the back of my car and got out my tripod. Fortunately, I had on my surplus Swedish Army wool pants so I could lay belly-down in the new snow.

Just then a car pulled alongside…This is the bane of all wildlife photographers…You may be on a little-traveled dirt road for hours without seeing a vehicle, but right when you spot a subject and start shooting, a car comes out of nowhere to scare off your quarry. But this time the driver used proper etiquette and backed up and parked behind me. I shot for about ten minutes, slowly getting closer and closer. The Snowshoe Hare sat motionless, hunkering lower and lower into the snow. In the hare’s mind, it was safe…No predator could see her…for she was white in a white world. This is the strategy hare’s use to avoid predation by their arch-enemy, the Canada Lynx. A useless strategy in “brown winters” like we had had up until recently.

After getting within 15 feet, I decided I’d gotten enough shots. As I crawled back to the car, the other car pulled up. In a southern twang, the lady said “You were like a setter on point…But we couldn’t see what you were looking at!” I pointed out the still-motionless hare. With much gratitude, they enjoyed a satisfying look at one of our cutest boreal mammals.

Here is the “snowshoe” part of a Snowshoe Hare! Huge, out-of-proportion rear feet help this bunny float over deep snow across its northern range. Of course, its main predator, the Canada Lynx, also has oversized paws!

Top: Canon 7D, Canon 400mm f5.6 lens; 1/400 at f5.6; ISO 100
Middle: Canon 7D, Canon 400mm f5.6 lens; 1/500 at f6.3; ISO 125
Rear End: Canon 7D, Canon 400mm f5.6 lens; 1/1000 at f5.6; ISO 125 (not quite fast enough shutter speed)

Today (Wednesday, November 16th) is GIVE TO THE MAX DAY…A 24-hour blitz of giving to your favorite non-profit/organization. My organization is one of those participating. We are raising money to build a Birder/Photographer Welcome Center in the Sax-Zim Bog. To see our page, go to http://givemn.razoo.com/story/Foszb

I’m not sure if you all know that I started a non-profit called Friends of Sax-Zim Bog (www.Sax-Zim.org). Friends of mine, and fellow birders, Dave Benson and Kim Eckert round out the 3-person board of directors. We are dedicated to supporting, promoting and protecting the Sax-Zim Bog Important Bird Area of northern Minnesota. Our goals are 3-fold:
1. Acquire bog habitat in the Sax-Zim Bog of St. Louis County, Minnesota (We are losing valuable bog habitat to logging each year)

2. Build a small “Birder/Photographer Welcome Center” and bog interpretive boardwalk on the land

3. Fund educational/research projects centered on peatlands and associated birdlife

Why is this project necessary?
Sax-Zim Bog is one of THE MOST FAMOUS BIRD WATCHING SITES IN NORTH AMERICA, drawing hundreds of birders and photographers annually (thousands during big owl “invasion” years). [It was recently mentioned several times in the Hollywood movie with Steve Martin, Jack Black and Owen Wilson, called The Big Year]

BUT the area has no facility for birders, photographers, tourists and locals to get more information, share sightings, warm up, learn about the natural history of the birds and the bog.

Also, there is currently no easy way to access and experience the bogs. A series of boardwalks would facilitate this.
The Black Spruce-Tamarack bog habitat that is most important for the breeding and wintering birds in the core Sax-Zim Bog IBA area must be preserved. The “birdable” habitat that borders county roads is fast disappearing due to logging.

A photo-illustration of the proposed Sax-Zim Bog Birder/Photographer Welcome Center.

Many birders have found their “lifer” Great Gray Owl in the Sax-Zim Bog.

INDIVIDUAL BIRD PERSONALITIES
Individual birds, like humans, have different personalities and tolerances. Today, I met a rare LeConte’s Sparrow who was extremely tolerant of this lumbering, fleece-clad and bug-dope-laced human. Turns out, the LeConte’s wasn’t lazy at all, just focused on finding a mate through song and willing to share his space with me.

It was 5-something in the morning and the sun had not quite cleared the horizon’s spruce trees in the Sax-Zim Bog when I heard the soft “tick-zheeeeeeee” of this colorful sparrow (colorful for a sparrow, that is!). I quickly put my 400mm on the 7D and attached a flash with the Better Beamer (a flash attachment that concentrates the beam of the flash by use of a plastic Fresnel lens).

Slowly I sloshed my way into the very wet meadow. I took a few “insurance” shots (like the wide image below) just in case he flew. But he held his ground. I would move about ten feet and then stop, kneel (to get eye level with him…Always better for a more intimate portrait) and take some photos. When I felt he was at ease, I’d move closer. I noticed I was shooting at an angle where a blade of grass was between me and the sparrow, so I shifted right and got a clear shot. Eventually he let me get within about 15 feet…Near the close-focusing minimum of my lens! I shot mostly when he was singing…The open beak adds some action to the image.

ULTIMATE GOAL OF WILDLIFE STALKING
The best part? I retreated without the LeConte’s ever leaving his perch. He was still singing away as I turned and left. This may be the ultimate goal in wildlife stalking…Getting close, getting the shot, not disturbing the subject, and leaving the animal in the exact state in which you found it.

WIDER IS NOT ALWAYS WORSE
Here is a little wider interpretation…I like it because it places the LeConte’s in its habitat…wet, sedgey, grassy swales. I also like the contrast of the Purpletop grass with the yellow sparrow and green stalks.

This sparrow is highly sought by birders because of its very limited breeding range in the United States. Most come to north central Minnesota or central North Dakota to add this species to their life list. Sax-Zim Bog between Duluth and the Iron Range is one of the best places to find them. A guide often helps in the search because they can be tough to find and even harder to hear. Their song is very soft and high-pitched. I remember one client that was watching a male LeConte’s sing through the scope I set up…but he couldn’t hear him…Right there and then he realized he’d lost his hearing in the upper range.
The LeConte’s was named by John James Audubon for his friend John LeConte of New York, a famous entomologist.

A portrait showing the beautiful face pattern and back markings. Also note the sharp tail feathers. A pop of the flash helps bring out the colors in this “pre-sunrise” image.

Top: Canon 7D with Canon 400mm f5.6 lens; f6.3 at 1/400; Auto ISO chose ISO 800; hand-held
Middle: Canon 7D with Canon 400mm f5.6 lens; f6.3 at 1/500; Auto ISO chose ISO 1600; hand-held
Bottom: Canon 7D with Canon 400mm f5.6 lens; f6.3 at 1/250; Auto ISO chose ISO 800; Canon 430EX flash with Better Beamer: hand-held

I can’t believe my youngest son is already one-year old. It just seems like yesterday that I took him on his first wildlife photography venture. It was May 15th of last year and Bjorn was 9-days old. I figured he’d sleep through the whole trip up to Sax-Zim Bog and back. Isn’t that all newborns do? Sleep, eat, poop. Just to be safe I took a bottle of formula.

Ryan Marshik followed along behind me as we slowly cruised the backroads at dawn. All was quiet in the bog and the backseat. Just then, a Red Fox popped out of the Tamarack woods with something in its mouth. We sped up to try to see what it was. A Muskrat! The fox had a LIVE Muskrat in its jaws. The light was beautiful so we parked alongside the road a few hundred yards ahead of where she disappeared into the woods. Wouldn’t you know it…she got ahead of us. So we started up the road again, but every time we caught up with her, she sauntered into safety of the woods. It was just then that Bjorn decided he was HUNGRY…It is amazing that such a tiny creature is born with lungs that can make that volume of sound! Since the fox was probably long gone, I pulled over, got the baby out of the car seat, and fed him his bottle in my lap.

There must be some law of nature that something urgent happens when you are in the middle of feeding a baby, for it was just then that the fox came out into a big clearing a quarter mile down the road. It is at this point that I will find out if my wife reads my blog or not; I GENTLY laid the half hungry/half full crying baby in the passenger seat of my Subaru while I SAFELY drove semi-quickly towards the meadow [Bridget: please note capitalized words!]. I was able to snap a couple of frames of the fox as she popped up onto a log and before she disappeared for the final time. Of course, I finished feeding the baby, returned him to his car seat and resumed our photography outing. The irony that I stopped feeding my baby to photograph another parent off to feed their babies was not lost on me.

The lesson here? Wildlife photography is possible with a 9-day old infant…But bring a bottle and save the stories for a year from now.

My photo assistant hard at work. Bjorn Nikolas Stensaas at 9 days old.

I spent the afternoon up in the Sax-Zim Bog hoping to find some teams participating in our (‘our’ = Friends of Sax-Zim Bog organization) 2011 BRRRRDathon. While I did not find any teams, I did find two of my favorite North Woods birds—the Black-backed Woodpecker and the Northern Goshawk.

Normally, Goshawk sightings are a blur of grayish blue as they zip by, or over, or behind you and disappear into the woods. Shy and secretive, most encounters make you feel like you’ve terrified the poor bird. They flush as soon as you stop the car. It is because of this that I’ve never been able to photograph a Gos away from Hawk Ridge in migration…Until today. An immature bird was hanging out a farm that has ducks and probably chickens and certainly pigeons…all acceptable Gos food. He/she flushed several times but always perched again, sometimes surprisingly low to the ground. I only got a couple distant shots.
They make their living by ambushing Ruffed Grouse, Snowshoe Hares, Red Squirrels (and pigeons, chickens) in deciduous and mixed forests in the northern states.

Later I followed a foot trail to a logged area that has hosted both tridactyl woodpecker species—American Three-toed and Black-backed Woodpecker. Both are extremely ‘tame’ birds…often allowing approach to within a dozen feet.
There were several Hairys but no Black-backeds. I did hear the sound of flaking bark a hundred yards further in, beyond where the packed foot trail ended. I’d forgotten my snowshoes but decided to forge on anyway…It turned into a heart-pumping slog through several hundred yards of knee to thigh-deep snow, tripod slung over my shoulder. But I was rewarded with a very close encounter of a male (yellow cap) Black-backed Woodpecker busily flaking bark from a dying Tamarack. He was trying to locate the larval grubs of Larch Beetles that have infected many Tamaracks (“larch”) in Minnesota.

I shot from 15 or 20 feet, filling the frame. He barely acknowledged this lumbering five-toed creature that was pointing a black thing at him. He looks pot-bellied but this is an illusion created by the fluffing of his feathers to keep his extremities warm. Note his three toes…Most woodpeckers have four toes, two pointing forward and two pointing back. I shot lots of video, some in slow-motion 60fps. This was the best still image.

Male Black-backed Woodpecker; Canon 7D w/Canon 400mm f5.6, f5.6 at 1/250, ISO 400, pop-up flash, tripod

I published Duluth naturalist’s David Benson’s Owls of the North a few years ago…Great little book, if you haven’t seen it. Fascinating info on all our northern owls…including the Northern Hawk Owl. Here is an excerpt about Hawk Owl hunting:

Hawk Owls hunt from a convenient perch, searching for prey by sight and then swooping quickly down for the kill. They will chase prey short distances, and sometimes they hunt from perch to perch, dropping down for prey and then swinging up to a nearby perch if they fail to catch their target. Hawk Owls have also been seen hovering over potential prey—unusual behavior for an owl [see photos this post—Sparky]

Alone among owls, Hawk Owls have a falcon-like notch in their bill to sever the spinal cords of their prey. Owl species often use their bills in a similar way, and presumably the notch helps the Hawk Owl to do this with more efficiency.

Congruent with their daytime activity, Hawk Owls rely on sight more than hearing for hunting. Their ears are symmetrical, so they apparently do not need the kind of precision hearing used by most other owls. When scanning for prey, Hawk Owls lean forward almost to the horizontal and pump their tails (a most “un-owly” posture). When they strike, their drop off the perch can look almost like and accidental fall until they begin to glide to the kill.

—from Owls of the North by David Benson (Stone Ridge Press, 2008, ISBN-978-0-9760313-4-5)

Happiness is a sunny day in the Sax-Zim Bog with a happy Northern Hawk Owl. I say he’s happy because he caught several voles in the brief time I spent with him (her?) and cached every one. There must be an abundance of voles around under the 20 plus inches of snow on the ground to have such hunting success.

Caching is fairly common amongst boreal avian predators in times of plenty. Great Gray Owls do it, Northern Shrikes do it, Gray Jays do it, and so do Hawk Owls. I watched as he fluttered near an old aspen snag evidently trying to put one vole in a crevice. Once he dropped the vole and had to fly down to the snow and pick it up and try again. And another time he knocked a big piece of bark off as he apparently tried to cache it between the bark and the stump. In the deep freeze of winter the voles will stay good for a long time. And when hunting is slow, the hawk owl can go to the “fridge” and get a volesicle!

On a couple occasions he flew over 100 yards to nab a vole. Jumping off his favorite perch at the tip of a 60 foot Quaking Aspen, he rocketed straight for the unsuspecting rodent, making his final approach only a few feet off the ground, wings set as in the photo. The flight trajectory was not a straight line but rather an inverted arc.

Northern Hawk Owls are diurnal raptors, hunting in daylight hours. This makes them very viewer/birder friendly. Add to this the fact that they are generally unfazed by human presence and you have a very charismatic species. They are about the size of a football with a tail (the long tail gives them their “hawk” name); a wingspan of 22-28 inches. I dare say that if this owl was as large as a Great Gray, it would be even more legendary.

This owl is a circumpolar species, breeding across the boreal forest and boreal/hardwood transition forest of Canada, Alaska, Scandinavian and Siberia. But their breeding range only dips into the U.S in northern Minnesota. During low cycles of voles in Canada, they can irrupt into northern Minnesota, Wisconsin and other northern states. On my Sax-Zim MN Christmas Bird Count in December 2004 we had 42 (!) Hawk Owls in a 15-mile diameter circle.

Canon 5D Mark II, Canon 400mm f5.6, f5.6 at 1/3200 TV, ISO 400

It had been a long time. I hadn’t seen my old friend the Great Gray Owl in nearly six months…until today. I was up in the Sax-Zim Bog knocking around, the old Subaru pushing through four inches of unplowed snow, when a Great Gray flew up from a small meadow, a vole in its talons. I stopped as quickly as I could, and pulled over as far as I could, and got out as quietly as I could. Gone.

Then, as I was about to walk (i.e. shuffle dejectedly) back to the car, the owl was right there. How could I have missed him? He was perched twenty feet up in an aspen, listening intently, paying me no mind.

A passerby rolled up in an SUV, “Anything good?” he said. This is the standard birder greeting when coming upon another birder. “A Great Gray” I returned. He pulled right over. We watched the Great Gray for the next half hour. He hovered a few times but didn’t make any more plunges. At one point a flock of Chickadees found him and let the huge owl know that this was THEIR woods. The owl was unfazed.

Video was my main goal but I did have the presence of mind to snap a few frames before it got too dark. I didn’t think too much about the photos because it was the same old image—a Great Gray perched upright in an aspen—I have dozens of these. So back at home, I decided to play around with the color balance to accentuate the blue colors of dusk while keeping the owl its natural gray. I also reduced the contrast to emphasize the owl. It’s a little weird …but I think I like it.

Canon 7D, Canon 400mm f5.6, f5.6 at 1/180, ISO 2000, tripod

This is the original image before any work was done in Aperture or Photoshop:

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