GREAT NORTH WOODS GOBBLERS
If someone had told me when I bought my land back in the early 90s, that I’d have up to 19 Wild Turkeys at my feeder someday, I would have told them they were CRAZY! At that time, Wild Turkeys in Minnesota were extremely rare outside of the very southeast corner of the state. “Besides,” I would have told them, “turkeys need acorns and open meadows…My land is pines and aspen and maple, very densely wooded.” Plus, I would have pointed out, they can’t survive in areas with deep snowpack. Good thing I didn’t make a wager!

TURKEYS IN THE SNOW (NOT “TURKEYS IN THE STRAW”)
I first noticed Wild Turkeys in our neck of the woods a few years ago when I’d hear a distant Tom gobbling on clear and calm April mornings. He was far away…maybe a half mile or more back in the Schillo’s south field. And I recorded a small group on my trail camera. Then last year one or two made a couple appearances at our feeders, but never when we were home. This year, the floodgate opened. Up to 19 Wild Turkeys have foraged under our feeders this winter. I started throwing out buckets full of cracked corn. But they are extremely wary…and any motion inside the house often sends them scurrying for the shelter of the ravine.

TOM TURKEY DISPLAY VIDEO
The above video was taken from our living room while I was in my pajamas trying to balance the camera on a coffee table and a stack of books, all the while trying to keep Birk (4) and Bjorn (2) from jumping off the couch and shaking the video camera….That is why there is no audio..You wouldn’t want to hear it!

SURFING WITHOUT A SURFBOARD
In late March, I got a big surprise when, not one, but TWO Toms began displaying right outside our picture window. A half dozen hens were feeding and seemed oblivious to the male’s full-on, fluffed-out display. The males would slowly circle each other and occasionally bump chests in slow motion. An occasional ruffle of the feathers is meant to impress. Then one morning, I saw a Tom displaying over a hen sitting in the snow. He eventually hopped up on her back and stood there for nearly ten minutes, all the while balancing on his precarious perch. Every time she made any movement, he had to react and respond to keep his balance. It was literally like watching a novice surfer on a surfboard. Impressive balancing act! Finally he hunkered down and she shifted her tail and the actual mating took place, lasting mere seconds.

The Cottontails, squirrels and turkeys all tolerated each other at the feeder. But each had their own personal space which could not be violated, lest they spook.

The morning spectacle (Above 2 images taken from our living room…Our feeders are about 18 feet from the house!).

WIDE ANGLE FUN
The two photos above were taken with a super-wide telephoto lens from snow level. How did I take these without spooking these spooky birds? I set my camera up on a mini-tripod outside where the turkeys usually fed. Then I used my remote trigger to release the shutter from inside the house. So I could sit in my easy chair drinking coffee and watching the morning news, and still be taking wildlife photos! But note that this is very low percentage shooting.

**NOTE THAT ALL THESE PHOTOS WERE TAKEN FROM OUR LIVING ROOM! …THROUGH DOUBLE-PANED, KID-SMUDGED WINDOWS. DON’T LET PEOPLE TELL YOU THAT YOU SHOULD NEVER TAKE PHOTOS THROUGH YOUR WINDOWS.
[All taken with Canon 7D…Most taken with Canon 400mm f5.6 lens and camera set to Shutter Priority 1/500 second and auto-ISO. Wide angles taken with Sigma 10-20mm lens and remote trigger]

2012 is gone and I’ve had a chance to look at all my images from the year and pick my favorites. Time helps clear your vision. Some images I was crazy about right after I took them, are no longer exciting to me. Here I present my favorite images of 2012 in reverse order…Maybe not the most saleable nor necessarily the best portraits (which can be boring), but the shots that I kept coming back to..the ones that intrigued me…or were difficult to get…or were the most creative. And this last bit about creativity brings me to my big announcement for 2013…I will be releasing a new video: GET CREATIVE: WILDLIFE IMAGES BEYOND THE PORTRAIT this year. Stay tuned!

#20—The surprise image of the year…I was perusing photos from my June work for the Minnesota County Biological Survey when I found this very underexposed, blaah image. But then I saw the potential as a high-contrast black and white image. The result was a very graphic silhouette of a foraging Pine Warbler amongst the long delicate needles of a Red Pine. St. Louis County, Minnesota.

#19—I spent much quality time with our backyard hummers this summer. We mainly hosted females but occasionally a bully male would show up…but never when my camera was in place. I was using flash and a Better Beamer to throw light onto the hummer but in this shot the flash did not fire. But I like the resulting softer look…No harsh light blasting the tiny bird. My home in Carlton County, Minnesota.

#18—Fall leaves always seem to vex me…I have a hard time creating interesting images of the stunning scenes around me in late September/early October. On this windy day I used a tripod and a very slow shutter speed to render the leaves a colorful blur while the trunks remained relatively still. I like the contrast of white vs. orange and blur vs. sharp. Rock Pond, UMD, Duluth, Minnesota.

#17—Eye-level Bald Eagle shots are not easy to come by! And this one has a story…It was taken 80 feet up in a firetower! I was visiting Big Bog State Recreation Area in far north central Minnesota and decided to climb the tower to get a bird’s-eye view of Lower Red Lake and surrounding forests. Some distant eagles caught my attention and I thought, wouldn’t it be cool if one flies past me in my aerial perch…And the miraculous part is that one did! It was not a gleaming white and black adult but rather a dramatically patterned youngster. I panned with the bird and amazingly it came out razor sharp.

#16—I cross this bridge over the St.Louis River on the outskirts of Duluth every day on the way to work. It has many moods and this hazy spring afternoon created a bucolic and blue still life of swans, ducks, ice and trees.

#15—My youngest son, Bjorn, shows great promise as a wildlife photographer…At least he looks good in khaki!

#14—Not a set-up! A fortuitous find that resulted in a very nice portrait with a little behavior too. This very rarely happens but it did this August morning on the Gunflint Trail. I’d just returned from a early morning paddle on the Brule River, loaded up the canoe and was pulling out of the dirt parking area when I spotted the foraging Cedar Waxwings in a heavily-fruited Mountain Ash.

#13—Just a very pleasing composition (to me anyway)…a water lily on dark water taken from a low angle to get the reflection. I also love the purplish lily pads. Cook County, Minnesota.

#12—A very long exposure with my 10mm Sigma lens was made possible by a 9-stop ND filter. I love the soft ethereal feel of the powerful Lower Falls of the Yellowstone River, belying the thunderous roar. Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming.

#11—I had to include this portrait as I have been trying to get a decent winter Snowshoe Hare photo for years! And on this snowy Sax-Zim Bog day, I succeeded! The hare really felt it was invisible and stayed put as I crawled closer and closer through the snow.

#10—Seems like I always slip in a non-nature subject. I really enjoy photographing vernacular architecture, including abandoned buildings like this farmhouse. A HDR image and sepia color finished it off. Itasca County, Minnesota.

#9—Abstract macro image of a Polyphemus Moth’s wings turned upside down to create a strange “face” complete with big blue eyes and a puckered mouth. My home in Carlton County, Minnesota.

#8—The banner headline of 2012 for us Duluthians/Carltonians was the Great Flood of June. It affected all of us dramatically. But my most powerful image was this shot of the raging St. Louis River taking out the historic and much loved Swinging Bridge of Jay Cooke State Park. Read more here.

#7—A rite of spring, the congregation of Sharp-tailed Grouse at their dancing grounds or leks, is an event I hate to miss. But it is always difficult shooting. They are most active just before sunrise when the light is poor…And it is April so the weather is often cloudy and windy. Visibility in the cramped blind is not great either. This time I resorted to a slow shutter speed and panning. I love the shot as it conveys the manic intensity of the males as they dance, pursue females, and chase off rival males. Carlton County, Minnesota.

#6—One of the few straight-up wildlife portraits in the collection, but I had to include it. Much has been made of the dramatic decline of Moose in Minnesota…and it makes me very sad. They are one of my favorite mammals. I learned to call Moose years ago…imitating the sound of a female. After a several-year dry spell, I was able to call this young bull in this fall. Intense moments followed as he was deciding whether I was a cow Moose or some stupid human. Thankfully he came to the right conclusion! See the video here.

#5—Can you tell what this is? Colorful river rocks below a Yellowstone National Park stream. It’s funny…I really don’t like abstract painting but I love much abstract photography.

#4—Two icons of Duluth in one shot! The Aerial Lift Bridge and a Ring-billed Gull. Not your typical wildlife shot but one that is certainly unique. In this technique I learned from flash/lighting guru ??? you set your camera to tungsten white balance (to turn the dark brooding sky blue) and then use a flash with an orange CTO gel to throw a very warm light on the subject, in this case, a Ring-billed Gull.

#3—Often times I’ll get home from a trip and when viewing my images in Aperture, I’ll come across an unexpected prize. It’s like Christmas as a kid! I thought I knew what my favorites would be from viewing them in the field on the back of my camera…but I’m often wrong. This is one such image. It was taken into the sunlight to backlight the Bison’s fur…but it was mostly a “G&G” shot (grab-and-go)…No premeditation, No tripod…Jump out of the car and “snap.” But after converting the image to sepia, I really loved it. Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming.

#2—I really concentrated on wide-angle wildlife this year and this may be my favorite. Crawling on my knees for hours on an Iowa prairie in September finally netted me this image. Read the whole story here. Northeast Iowa.

#1—Drumroll please…My personal favorite from 2012. Read the whole story of this bog encounter here. See the video here. I like the Great Gray Owl’s furtive glance around the trunk of a spruce…It lends an air of mystery. It is very “Brandenburg’s-wolf-peek-esque” if you’ve ever seen his famous photo. Sax-Zim Bog, Minnesota.

Female Ruby-throated Hummingbird at Turk’s-cap Lily, Skogstjarna, Carlton County, Minnesota (i.e. my “backyard”)

The whole family has had a blast watching the Ruby-throated Hummingbird antics at our backyard feeder this summer. We’ve had up to 4 around the feeder at once. Though there are six feeding holes in the dispenser, they seem unable to feed peaceably next to each other. Fights are non-stop. For a while we had the “bully,” a male who sat like a king on his throne on the hanging bracket and chased away any nearby hummer…even when he wasn’t interested in feeding. The last few summers we’ve had the feeder out by the garden, but moving it to the “backyard” was the best move we could have made. Our large picture windows allowed great viewing and also helped remind us when the sugar-water mix was low or out. We used to forget about it when it was by the garden and let it run dry much to the hummers chagrin.

Here is an example of a flash image that I don’t like as much as the non-flash image below. (Liatris bloom)
And this is why you keep your finger on the shutter even after your flash fires. Sometimes you like the non-flash image! Though only shot at a relatively slow 1/250 of a second, the hummer’s head is sharp, which proves that though hovering with wings beating at 55-70 times per second, their head is absolutely still. Amazing! This might be my favorite from “the summer of the hummer.”

My first goal was to get some photos of Ruby-throats feeding on native flowers…A very difficult shot in the wild. Why is this type of image tough to capture? Because in the wild, you can’t control the situation. If you plant yourself near some highly desirable hummingbird flowers (Liatris, Monarda, Milkweed, etc) you never know when one might show up, and then it will be cautious of that weird large human with the “bazooka” pointing at it. On the other hand, if you stumble upon a feeding hummer, it is highly unlikely that you’ll have time to focus, position the flash, get the correct exposure and fire off a shot before the hummer moves on, as they normally quickly move from flower to flower.

The native plant/clamp hummingbird set up.
A female comes in to an irresistable Morning-Glory bloom.
Here’s where the hummer’s long bill and tongue really come in handy; deep corolla flowers like Morning-Glory “hide” their nectar deep inside.

NOW, HOW TO DO IT (FOR ALL YOU FELLOW PHOTO NERDS!)
To get clean hummingbird images, you need to control the situation. First I gathered a native and photogenic flower and put it in water so it wouldn’t wilt. I then set up my camera on a tripod about 25 feet from the feeder. You have to judge the distance for yourself and what lens you are using, but you want enough room surrounding the flower to allow for the body of the hummer. You don’t want to be so tight that you clip part of the bird. Err on the side of too much space around the flower as you can always crop later. I attached my flash and to that attached a Better Beamer (a flash attachment that uses a fresnel lens to concentrate the beam of your flash so it projects further).

Now, I took the native flower and attached it to the bracket that the feeder was hanging on. I used a regular clamp this time but often use the “plamp” (plant clamp) from Wimberley to do this. One end has a beefy clamp that can attach to tree branches, a tripod leg, or in this case, the hanging bracket. You can then twist and bend the plamp into any position you need. The flower end of the plamp has a swiveling low tension clamp so you can fine tune the flower’s position.

Quickly test your set up. Position your tripod so that you will be shooting exactly perpendicular to the feeding hummingbird (if this is the shot you want). This is possible with Morning-Glory but not with Liatris where they can feed on all sides of the flower. Also look for the best background for your images. You don’t want distracting branches, blown out sky, ugly browns in your background. This is a VERY important step that can make or break a photo. Since I am in a very wooded spot, I am especially worried about “hot” branches, branches lit up by the sun that cause very distracting light lines,blobs in the final photo. What I do look for are nicely lit, even green foliage that I know will blur into a smooth green background.

I pre-focus on the spot where I want the hummingbird and then turn off the auto focus on the lens. This way I don’t have to be looking through the camera when I’m shooting. I just watch and press the shutter when I think the hummer is in position. Now quickly fire off a few test shots. Exposure is always a compromise between shutter speed and aperture. You want a relatively shallow depth-of-field (DOF) to get out-of-focus backgrounds BUT you also want enough DOF so both hummer and flower are in focus. A delicate balancing act for sure. Most are shot at f5.6 to f6.3. For the majority of these images I used high-speed sync for my flash, shooting at 1/1000 of a second (all but the Liatris images). But I don’t think I’d do this again. I like some blur in my hummingbird wings…It adds some drama, reality, motion into the image…And even 1/1000 doesn’t come close to freezing them…And high-speed sync seems to take more effort from your flash so it doesn’t recycle as quickly as when shooting at its regular 1/250 sync speed.

The final key to this operation is to cover the hummingbird feeder completely with a towel. You can also remove the feeder if you like but I found this just an extra unnecessary step. Now plant yourself next to your camera and get ready…finger on the shutter button. Because if you have an active feeding station it won’t take long for the first hummer to come zinging in. He/she will seem confused at first, trying to get at the covered feeder, but then it will see the showy flower you provided conveniently at hummer-head height, and think to itself, “Why not? It’s here, it has nectar, might as well try it” and that is when you start firing off shots as fast as your flash will recycle. But actually I just keep shooting because even non-flash images in a sequence can be beautiful.

This set-up really works well on established hummingbird feeders…but only for a few minutes…until all the local hummers have been fooled and tried your flower and used up the nectar. So I immediately take down the flower and uncover the feeder after my photo session…Usually less than half an hour. You don’t want to frustrate your guests too much so they go over to your neighbor’s feeder!

My big failure for the summer was NEVER getting a male to feed on “my flower”…I think all the images here would be enhanced with the male’s iridescent throat feathers shining like a ruby in the sunlight/flash burst. Oh well, there’s always next summer!

**[All images take with Canon 7D with Canon 400mm f5.6 lens and 430EX flash with Better Beamer attached. Tripod. Most at f5.6 or 6.3 at ISO 200 to 400, 1/250 to 1/1000]

Cecropia Moth (Hyalophora cecropia)

It has been a FANTASTIC year for butterflies and moths. Why? I’m not sure but there has been some speculation that the mild winter allowed more hibernators to survive. This would explain the incredible explosion of Mourning Cloak butterflies but what about the moths that winter as eggs or cocoons?

I’ve been keeping one single garage light on (compact flourescent bulb!) for the last few weeks, and I’ve managed to attract dozens of species, including my personal trifecta of giant silkworm moths in the family Saturniidae—Polyphemus Moth (Antheraea polyphemus), Luna Moth (Actias luna) and the Cecropia (Hyalophora cecropia).

All were photographed near my house and garage. In the morning I check “my catch”…the moths that have been attracted to the light overnight. I then carefully maneuver them onto a stick and move them to a more attractive setting than my garage’s T-111 siding!

Polyphemus Moth (Antheraea polyphemus)

The Polyphemus is just as large (6-inch wingspan) as the Cecropia, but more common in our area.”Polyphemus” refers to the one-eyed giant son of Poseidon in Greek mythology.

In southern New England there was a reported decline in giant silkworm moth populations. It was speculated that pesticides, habitat loss, increased lighting at night had all contributed to this decline. But there was little evidence for any of this…even that there was a decline. But it was discovered that a fly introduced to control the Gypsy Moth was parasitizing the caterpillars of these large silkworm moths. The fly is Compsilura concinnata. I have not seen any reports of declines in the North Woods.

Luna Moth (Actias luna)

Luna Moths (like all giant silkworm moths in the Saturniidae) are living batteries, running on energy stored when in the ravenous caterpillar stage. In fact, the adults have non-functional mouthparts. Adults only live about a week. Females mate, lay eggs and die. Males mate and die.

Unfortunately for me, this specimen was 12 feet up in a spruce and in harsh light. This photo was one of my “insurance shots” before I tried to clip the branch to move it into shaded light. That failed miserably (for me) as the Luna flew skyward and disappeared to the north.

Polyphemus Moth (Antheraea polyphemus)

It is surmised that the lifelike “eyes” on the Polyphemus’s hindwings startle potential predators giving them an extra second to escape.

The Cecropia is one of our largest North Woods moth having a 6 inch wingspan. Amazingly, males may fly more than 20 miles over several nights in search of females. The females release a pheromone that the males key in on. Populations are often thin with only a few adults per square mile, BUT, surprisingly populations can be quite dense in some suburban areas.

A good field guide will really inspire your moth study. Our Moths and Caterpillars of the North Woods by Jim Sogaard shows over 300 species of moths (and their caterpillars) including 9 species of Giant Silkworm Moths. Jim shares ID tips, Life Cycle, Range, Caterpillar foods for each species. Order it through Amazon.com.

My bobcat buddy is still around. These images and video were taken with my remote Bushnell Trophy Cam trail camera in November and mid December. ALL WERE TAKEN WITHIN 100 YARDS OF OUR HOUSE! Of course we live on the north edge of Minnesota’s Nemadji River Valley with many square miles of roadless bog and wooded wilderness to the south.

What a fat and beautiful animal! If the still images taken in mid December are the same Bobcat as in the video (taken in mid November), why does this one seem so much “fatter?” It could be that it has acquired more of its denser winter coat and so appears fluffier (i.e. fatter). Or it cold be a different individual.

My dream is to someday photograph this gorgeous animal with a “real” camera from a blind. But how many frigid hours would I have to sit before getting a glimpse? And one click of the shutter might send it scampering.

Cats are cats
Note in the video how many familiar cat-like traits/behaviors this Bobcat has…the way it stretches on the log, its body posture when it eats, how it shakes its head, sharpens its claws and wags its short tail…all very feline.

What camera?
I also love how the Bobcat (and most wildlife) is unfazed by the camera and its red lights. This makes sense though since many mammals cannot see light in this spectrum. Cats and wild cats (Bobcat, Lynx, Mountain Lion, etc.) see in color, but they have difficulty distinguishing reds. “Reds appear as differing shades of gray to a cat. It is believed both dogs and cats see mainly in grays, yellows, and blues” (from wisegeek.com).

I hope she sticks around…and maybe more chicken, grouse and deer carcasses will help convince her that Skogstjarna is a good place to spend a cold winter.

I know, I know, it’s a horrible picture. But an exciting find nonetheless. I’d left my trail camera set up in our woods along a deer trail between our house and cabin for the last month. It’s always a bit like Christmas every time we hook the camera up to the TV after a long stint in the woods. This time, I’d left it in place for a month. With Bridget and the boys gathered around the 42-inch LG, this is how the conversation went, “Deer, deer, deer, porcupine, deer, deer butt, deer butt, …wait!..What is that?…Is that a Bobcat?…Look at the white spots on the ears…IT IS A BOBCAT!” It is the first documented Bobcat on our little five acres (I thought I heard one years ago).

The time stamp said “September 15, 2011…8:57am” In broad daylight too! We do have many Cottontails around so maybe it was hunting them…Or just a young cat wandering in search of new territory. The camera does not do well in dappled sunlit woods…underexposes images terribly…like this one. The image quality would have been much better if it had been heavy overcast or even in the middle of the night!

Here is my “bestest and mostest favorite” Bobcat image. It was taken down in the Lower Rio Grande Valley of Texas in April of 2006. The wind was blowing so hard and rustling the dried and dead palm fronds, that it never even heard me. In fact, it came down the same path I was on and when it was within about ten feet of me, I flinched and it fled into the jungle! Very cool animals.

I’d been waiting for this day for a long time…A fluffy white snowfall on red maple leaves at the peak of their color. It happened one year ago today…October 10, 2009. I think Duluth got 2 inches of snow…In the Nemadji Valley we maybe got one inch; But it was enough to create a strange juxtaposition of snow on the ground with colorful leaves on the trees.

This October 10th has been quite the opposite of one year ago; The peak of color is long over—the maples peaking nearly two weeks ago, and it was over 70 degrees today!

While perusing my natural history journal last week, I came upon last year’s October 10 entry about the snowfall. I remembered I had driven through Jay Cooke State Park (Carlton Co., MN) and into Douglas County, Wisconsin looking for images. I’d never really looked at them, so had fun editing them today. These are my two favorites (plus a shot of our house). The red Sugar Maple leaves were in Jay Cooke and the yellow Quaking Aspens were just outside of Oliver, Wisconsin.

Maple leaves: Canon 7D, Canon 70-200mm f4 lens at 200mm, f9.5 at 1/90, ISO 400, tripod
Quaking Aspen: Canon 7D, Canon 70-200mm f4 lens at 200mm, f9 at 1/250, ISO 400, handheld

You know what’s the best thing about a trail camera? It’s the “Christmas Morning” effect. You go out in the woods and retrieve the camera after a week or so; Then you see that it has taken a bunch of images. Hooking it up to the TV you get that anticipation that you used to feel on Christmas morning (or for us Norwegians, Christmas Eve after the dishes from dinner were washed!). What have you captured? Gather friends and family around because it is  a fun experience to share. It’s kind of like the feeling us “old timers” remember in the days of slides…Anticipation, excitement. Did I get the shot?

For Father’s Day Bridget bought me a Bushnell BoneCollector Trail Camera. It shoots video and 8mp stills, and uses a 32-LED flash for night shots that doesn’t spook game like a regular flash. Last week I set it up along a well used trail on my land just south of the cabin. My woods is a mix of huge White and Red Pines, Red Maple, Quaking Aspen, Black Ash and at least one of every other northern Minnesota species. Today I went and got it. 54 new images had been taken! As we started flipping through the images the excitement was building. We knew it would be mainly White-tailed Deer and it was…We did get one half grown fawn, still sporting white spots, quite a few daytime shots of an adult doe and some night time shots of deer too. Only three shots left…More deer? The group let out a whoop as we flipped to the next image…A Black Bear in the daytime! Not a great image but a great prize.

The neatest part was that the image was taken only two hours before I retrieved the camera…And my cousin’s wife was sitting on the deck of the cabin reading at the time…Only 50 yards away! She didn’t hear a thing and she had wanted to see a bear on this trip too.

I got to go…Have to set up that trail camera in a new spot!

I first heard the screachy raspy screams in late spring. I’d heard these middle-of-the-night calls before. They are the begging vocalizations of young Great Horned Owls. They’ve nested on my 5 acres before, but this time the nest was near my cabin. I could never find the nest but many times in April and May I heard the raucous caterwauling of a mob of crows harassing the adults. Occasionally a Raven would join in the thuggery. Then in mid May and early June I heard the raspy calls of not one chick, but three! All were out of the nest but still begging for food from mom and dad…Teenagers cleaning out the fridge on a daily basis. One day, walking from the house to the cabin I found two of the young perched at the cabin…One on the roof, the other on an overhanging branch. I went back to the house to get Bridget and Birk and we refound one further off in the woods. Still begging but as you can see from the photo, nearly in adult plumage with some downy feathers still. We watched through the scope and then I took some photos with the 400mm, then the 400 plus 1.4 extender, then I thought, what the heck, I’ll try and stack the 2x extender on the 1.4 extender for some video. This images is taken with the 400 and both extenders…an equivalent of a 1800mm lens! With a little selective work in Photoshop and Aperture, it looks pretty good. Just because some pros say never stack teleconverters, doesn’t mean it can’t produce excellent results in some situations.

Canon 7D, 400mm lens with 1.4x and 2x telextenders, tripod. ISO 2000 (yes, 2000!) f16 (due to the telextenders) at 1/125