A Day in the Life of a Northland Photographer …

Year 13

Today’s plan … in progress:

  1. Get up at 4:45 am
  2. Have breakfast at 5:00 am
  3. Read news at 5:15 am
  4. Fill birdfeeders at 5:40 am
  5. Worked on solar array power system test station at 6:00 am
    • Creating Birdsong Listening Station for Hawk Ridge
    • Will run off the grid 24x7x52
    • Optimized with parts to run down to -40F
  6. Arrive at Lake Superior cabin at 8:00 am
    • Take images of lupines and historic cabin
    • Paid gig for Lake Superior magazine
  7. Arrive at Greenwood Creek Birdfeeders at 9:30 am
    • Fill birdfeeders
    • Take long hike … swap out SD cards on
      • 3 Birdsong Listening Devices
      • 6 Trailcams
    • Change batteries on selected devices
  8. Arrive home about 1 pm … lunch and rest
  9. Work on images from Greenwood Creek birding hike at 2 pm
  10. Work on low power options for Hawk Ridge birdsong station at 3 pm
  11. Dinner at 6 pm
  12. Configure new test parameters for Hawk Ridge birdsong station at 8 pm
  13. Go to sleep at 9 pm

Time to leave for my cabin / lupine photo session on Lake Superior, after first grabbing a Diet Coke! It is now 6:45 am.

Washington Post, the Davidson Windmill & the Northern Lights

Year 13,

I almost never enter photography contests, but I just made an exception to that rule for  the Washington Post. One of the contest rules was the image had to be taken within the past 12 months. While submission of a birding image might seem obvious, I decided to provide a photograph taken last November of the Davidson Windmill and the Northern Lights. Here is the image I submitted. In my comments to the Washington Post I noted that I practice realism in my photography. Thus, this photo closely represents what I saw that night last November with my naked eye. I did NOT run up the ISO thereby allowing my camera to record something different than what was showing in the heavens above!

Upland Trail Forest Road Magic

Year 13

People who bird the Upland Forest Trail normally access the road from Lake County #2 at the junction with Whyte Road (avoid this section of Whyte Road like the plague … it descends into horrible bog and should NOT be driven even with four wheel drive.) However, I figured out that there is another section of Upland Forest Trail on the other side of a marsh / bog. If one drives to the area known at Toimi, Minnesota and IF you have a car with four wheel drive / all wheel drive, there is a one mile section of the road that may be safely driven. Right at the one mile point there is a parking area, BUT DO NOT drive past this point. I tried hiking and the road descended into marsh.  Later this fall I will try the hike once more.

The drive will take you across an active set of railroad tracks, and from that point on the birding is fantastic. When the flies and mosquitoes die down some towards the end of July there are some great birding hikes off to one’s right as a person drives onto this wilderness area. The birdsong listening stations I have deployed have ID’d a remarkable number of warblers species,  including lots of Connecticut Warblers. The area off to the right has amazing raptor perching trees.

The images included below are actually from just past the turn onto Upland Forest Trail. In a few hundred yards a person gets to two cool large ponds (next to the railroad tracks). The Trumpeter Swan Family lived in and raised their family here this summer.