Tag Archives: Ducks

COLVILL BAY – Red Wing, MN #exploremn

COLVILL BAY

After missing sunrise and quick drive down the lake and back I stopped in to Colvill Bay.  Per usual this time of year, there was a flurry of activity.  Ducks in the water and eagles flying overhead and perched in trees.

I was greeted right away by a mature eagle perched close by.  The snow was falling pretty good at this point; it sat there eye-balling the ducks below.

There were quite a few very active eagles there this morning.  As I was shooting, a poker theme emerged.

COLVILL BAY
4 of a kind
COLVILL BAY
A pair
COLVILL BAY
A full house

It was tough shooting with the steam rising off the water and snow falling from above.

COLVILL BAY
Joker

It is always interesting to see what variety of ducks will be in the bay.

PRE-SUNSRISE COLOR – Bay City, WI #presunrisecolor

PRE-SUNRISE COLOR

There is nothing quite like the the palette of color nature displays prior to the sun rising above the horizon.  Pre-sunrise color can be quite spectacular; as was the case this morning.

Don’t forget to look all around before the sun comes up and the vivid color is gone.

pre-sunrise color
iPhone pano

Once the sun broke the horizon the pinks/reds disappeared; the blue and yellow became more defined.

Post-sunrise.

A constant stream of ducks doing flybys pre-sunrise; if you look close enough you can see them in one of the shots.  There were lots of geese honking.  A single pair a swans swam close by.  Two eagles chattered on and on in a nearby Cottonwood Tree.  What a great morning and start to the day.

 

 

North Dakota Safari | ND Drift Prairie

img_0286There wasn’t any extreme off-roading at all on our trip to North Dakota; there were roads everywhere.  We roamed about freely; pretty much uninhibited by obstacles with the exception of the “bridge out” signs in the middle of nowhere and the occasional pond/lake right in the middle of a road.  The GPS was rather amusing with its informative display of where we were driving.  Often it stated unpaved road or simply – Driving on Road.  You can truly find the middle of nowhere in ND.  I love it.

When traveling through the middle of nowhere don’t be surprised if you encounter a train of machinery blocking your way.  You can see the dust cloud miles away.  That is your hint to pull off and get out of their way.  Harvest time was in full gear when we were there.  The dust from the roads and the picking of corn and beans made for some interesting photos.

know I have used the term “dirt road” rather loosely; to include gravel roads, etc. – anything not paved.  We were actually on dirt roads in ND – black fertile dirt very compacted from grain trucks and other farming machinery.  These field roads were smooth.  In fact, they were often smoother-riding than some of the black top roads.  The weeds on these dirt roads were a bit tall in spots though.  There were several times that we stopped to shoot some wildlife and all you could smell was simmering grasshopper guts and burnt weeds.

There was plenty of wildlife between each town and abandoned place we happened upon.  I very much enjoyed my close encounter with a hawk and just the sheer numbers of them that we saw.  We chased around egrets for a while as well and stumbled upon some baby turkeys.  They are not cute at all – as most baby animals usually are.  Everyone of those puddles held an abundance of waterfowl with no shortage of goose poop.

This was two of the better days we have enjoyed out shooting in a while.  Great locations, weather and of course my company is always wonderful.