Return of the Friendly Fox

I was out driving some of the back roads this evening and as I was slowly driving up Hollow Rock Creek Road, I could see this small animal walking right down the road towards me, quite a ways off in the distance. I stopped the car, attached my telephoto lens to my camera, and slowly got out of the car, then sat down on the ground on the side of the gravel road. The animal saw my movement and stopped for a moment, presumably to assess whether or not I was a threat. Apparently deciding that I was a friend, not a foe, it again started to trot down the road towards me. As it got closer I could see that it was a young fox. Closer and closer he came, until he was just about 5o feet away, then he stopped to make another assessment. We looked at each other for a few moments, and I tried to talk to him as soothingly as I could, then after about 30 seconds he slowly started to work his way closer and closer to me, until he was just about 10 feet away. I have a sneaking suspicion that this is one of the same foxes that I was shooting late last summer and early fall (see past post archives from August 2007). I am quite positive he was one of the foxes from that group, as he was behaving very similarly to the way those foxes behaved. From the way he approached me, and the look in his eyes, it seemed as though he knew me, and perhaps remembered me from spending so much time shooting him and his siblings last year. I'll have to check back to this spot now and then to see if he hangs around in this area.....

After the rain

It rained most of the day today, and after the rain quit some fog settled in and every now and then the fog was so thick there was a mist coming down. I love days like today. After the rain is done its fun just to wander along in the woods and look at things up close. Water droplets are some of the funnest things to shoot right after a rain. Most people probably don't even notice how beautiful something so small can be. I like to just find a spot in the woods, sit down, and look around for a few minutes. After a while you start to notice a lot of interesting things just right around the area where you are sitting. The more you look, the more you see. I am amazed by how many water droplets a single 3-inch leaf can hold. One of the things I look forward to the most each spring is when the Marsh Marigolds start to pop out. After today's rain it seemed like they were everywhere. Again, the more you look..... the more you see. The marigolds seem to be a harbinger of the beauty that will soon fill the forest. I can't wait to see more!

Feels like spring

After what has been (so far) a rather cold spring, its finally starting to feel like spring. The daytime temperatures are starting to get nice and warm, and the signs of spring are everywhere. Marsh marigolds are starting to bloom, and I'm starting to get a nice variety of birds showing up at my feeders. Today I had the usual chickadees and nuthatches, but also a couple of grackles, some purple finches, a rose-breasted grosbeak, goldfinches, and about a half-dozen blue jays. Every evening, if you are near a swamp or pond, you can hear spring peepers calling out in their distinctive sound that says "Spring is here!"

This evening I took a drive along some of the backroads to take in the spring beauty. Along my drive I saw a moose and a black bear, but was unable to get a picture of either one. The bear took off so fast I didn't have a chance at getting a shot, and the moose was rather shy and would not come out from the woods across the swamp where I spotted him. Oh well. Its always fun just to see them. As sunset approached, I found myself in the perfect location to get some very nice shots of the sunset color in the clouds and on the hills, as well as in the reflections of a pond. The spring peepers were my constant company as I made the images you see here.

As much as I enjoy winter, there is nothing like a perfect spring evening with the chirping of the frogs seeming to surround you as you sit on the edge of a pond. Unfortunately, not everything about spring is to be looked forward to.... along with the incredible colors of the sunset, and the sounds of the frogs, are the first appearance of ticks. When I got back to my car I did an inspection of my pant legs and found 3 of them. Oh well again. At least they don't seem to be as bad as they were last year. I guess we have the colder weather and increased moisture to thank for that. If you'd like to hear the frogs, visit the video clip gallery on my website: http://travisnovitsky.smugmug.com/gallery/4207197_KrddQ

(Above: Sunset cloud reflections on pond water)

Two Harbors Sunset

Another one of those glorious Lake Superior evenings..... that's how I will remember tonight. I had to go to Duluth today to do a photo presentation of the north shore for a fundraiser for the Sugarloaf: North Shore Stewardship Association (visit www.sugarloafnorthshore.org for more info about Sugarloaf) and on my way home I stopped to watch the sunset over the Two Harbors ore docks. The photo presentation went very well. When introducing myself I explained who I am and what I do, then gave a 12 minute slide show followed by a question and answer session. The response to my images was overwhelmingly positive.... many folks came up to me after the presentation to chat. Some had questions about the images, some had questions about me, some were looking for a business card, and others just wanted to shoot the breeze. The event was held at the Cotton Mansion at 2309 East First Street in Duluth (www.cottonmansion.com). What a beautiful place.... and its run as a bed and breakfast, so you can actually stay there.

Duluth was beautiful.... everything was so green already, the grass and the trees. We don't have any leaves out yet in Grand Portage, but some of the trees are starting to bud out a little. My guess is we'll have a little green for the Memorial Day weekend. As I mentioned, on my way home I stopped in Two Harbors to watch the sun set over the ore docks. When I got down near the docks, I could see that the Indiana Harbor was in one of the slips, taking on a load of iron ore. I walked out on the breakwall to get a better look at the boat, and while walking out towards the lighthouse at the end of the breakwall I couldn't help but notice how beautiful the lake was. Just the slightest breeze, and the surface of the water had a sheen to it that made me think of a painting. Every once in a while a little breeze would kick up, and you could actually watch as the "wind line", as I call them, moved across the surface of the water. Mergansers swam along the edge of the breakwall and took turns diving underwater. At one point I even saw what I thought was an otter swimming towards the breakwall, but as it got closer I could see it looked like a muskrat. It swam right up close to where I was standing, then disappeared into the boulders that flank the concrete of the breakwall.

While sitting beneath the lighthouse at the end of the breakwall, two men walked up and sat down a few feet to my left. They asked where I was from and when I said "Grand Portage", they said that they had just come from there. One of them was from southern Minnesota, and the other was from Omaha.... they had driven up to Thunder Bay in their Corvettes to visit Fort William, and had also stopped at Grand Portage National Monument on the way back. Once they found out I was a north shore resident, they were full of questions....about the fur trade, the ore boats, wildlife, etc. As the sun approached the horizon, they said they had to continue down the road, so we parted ways after thanking each other for the conversation. I walked back to the shoreline, and found a nice quiet spot on the grass to watch as the sun dipped below the horizon. Soon after the sun had set, some Canada Geese came poking along down the shore, making for a nice addition to one of the images with the fading sky light and the lights on the ore docks. Really, a fine evening spent on the shore of Lake Superior.

(Above: "Wind line" on the surface of the lake)

(Above: Conveyor belt machine making piles of iron ore pellets)

Ruffed Grouse

Today was REALLY cool.... thanks to my friend Paul Sundberg, I was able to spend most of the day watching a very tame grouse perform his drumming ritual, hoping to attract a female grouse (and to warn any other male grouse to stay away, this is MY area!). Paul was kind enough to tell me about this grouse that he had discovered that would literally let you sit right on the same log as him while he drummed. This was an unforgettable experience. I arrived at the drumming log in the woods just after 8:00 AM, which I thought would maybe be too late, but there he was, sitting on his log when I arrived. And true to what Paul had said, he was not really bothered by my prescence at all. I slowly worked my way around the front of the log and positioned myself so that I was looking straight at the grouse. Within moments he began to beat his wings.



When a grouse "drums", they are flapping their wings back and forth very rapidly, and the implosion of air created by this rapid wing movement results in a very loud "thump, thump, thump" noise. The beats start out slow, then rapidly increase to a machine-gun like pace before slowing to a stop. When the drumming stops, the grouse looks around, on the lookout for any female that may be approaching. After a couple of minutes, he tries drumming again. I watched this countless times over the course of the day.







After shooting the grouse for a few hours in the morning, I headed downtown for lunch (hump day buffet at Sven and Ole's Pizza!), then a quick stop at the mountain bike shop to visit Mark, the owner, for a few minutes. While I was there my friend Monica had seen my car parked outside and came in to see what I was up to. I told her about the grouse, and we went back up in the afternoon to take some more pictures of him. I was able to get a couple shots of Monica that show just how close the grouse will let you get. This ranks right up there as one of the all-time best wildlife experiences I've had, and I owe it all to Paul. Thanks again, Paul, for telling me about this guy! You can view some short video clips of the grouse as he drums by clicking on this link:

http://travisnovitsky.smugmug.com/gallery/4207197_KrddQ

and you can view more photos of the grouse here:

http://travisnovitsky.smugmug.com/gallery/3526781_dB8HH#296067059_aBXMp

Enjoy!

An evening on the Arrowhead

(Above: Paddling on Swamp River)

(Above: Flooded boat landing at Irish Creek. I had originally planned on paddling from here, but the landing was flooded and I would have had to walk through a few inches of water for about 500 feet or more before it was deep enough to get into the canoe. I didn't have waterproof shoes with me, and the water was pretty cold so I decided to continue up to the Swamp River access and paddle from there.)

This evening I took a drive along the Arrowhead, hoping to see some moose and to go for a paddle in the canoe. I drove up to Swamp River and on the way I did see a moose on Otter Lake Road. I came around a corner and there he was, right in the middle of the road. I stopped and got out to take some pictures and he just stood there staring at me for a minute or two, then walked down the road a little ways and turned off into the woods.

Most of the day had been very cloudy, and as luck would have it while I was paddling on Swamp River the clouds broke just before sunset and let some incredibly beautiful light through. There was absolutely no wind to speak of, so the reflections on the river were pretty incredible. After loading the canoe back on the car I stopped at Prout Lake on the way home to watch the sunset. It was beautiful, of course.....and with some sticks along the shoreline that had been chewed by beavers it made for an interesting foreground in the pictures. I also heard my first spring peepers (frogs) of the year, and even had the mild annoyance of a mosquito or two. Spring is definitely here!

(Above: Swamp River reflections)

(Above: Moose on Otter Lake Road)

(Above: Beaver-chewed sticks at sunset on Prout Lake)

(Above: Sunset light along Otter Lake Road)

(Above: Sunset, Prout Lake. Its quite amazing to be sitting on the shoreline and hearing spring peepers while enjoying this view!)

HOME

This morning was one of those mornings where I felt very fortunate to live where I do. As I stood on Lake Superior's shore near Hollow Rock watching the sunrise, I realized I am right where I want to be. I have done a fair amount of traveling in the past few years and with all of the amazing places I have seen, there is no place I would rather live than here. I have been to Alaska to photograph Bald Eagles, Nebraska for the Sandhill Crane migration, visited the deserts, canyons and mountains of New Mexico, Utah, Arizona and Colorado, spent time in the Badlands and the Black Hills and traveled across the country to California and up the coast through southern Washington state, exploring the land of the giant Redwood trees and the beautiful Pacific coastline. This world is full of many wonders, but Lake Superior to me is still the most wondrous, beautiful thing I have ever seen. There is a magic that exists on the shores of Superior that I have been unable to find anywhere else. This area is constantly reminding me of how beautiful it is. I only hope that, through my images, I am able to at least partially convey what I feel at these moments. Lake Superior is home.

Raging River

Friday evening saw a pretty heavy rainfall over northeast Minnesota.... it rained all night, and it rained hard. The Pigeon River is swollen after that rain, and is a raging torrent of water. I took a walk to High Falls at Grand Portage State Park this morning and couldn't believe how much water was coming over the falls. It looks just like it did last fall after we had all that flooding rain. I actually was unable to take a decent picture with my Canon SLR camera.... there simply was too much water and with all the spray coming up the lens would get too wet before I could take a picture. I was able to get a few shots with my little pocket camera as the lens on that one is so small the water on the lens isn't as noticeable in the pictures. If you're thinking of visiting the falls, I would recommend bringing a rain jacket. If you spend more than a minute or two looking at the falls, you will get soaked! If you're lucky and visit the falls when the sun is shining, you'll be treated to some pretty amazing rainbows, too.





Another cool thing at the park right now is a giant ice field that is filling part of the estuary between the park visitor center and High Falls. This ice formed late last fall/early winter as a result of the hard rains we had in october and november. An ice dam formed over the main channel of the river, forcing the majority of the water to flow down this side channel for most of the winter. As a result there is a thick field of ice still remaining over part of the river, and it actually resembles a glacial ice field that you might see in Alaska. Its hard to get a sense of scale from the images, but the ice field is anywhere from 6 to 8 feet thick. Its really pretty amazing, and not something you see very often at the park..... so if you have the time, take a drive up and check it out!

You can see some more images and some video of the falls at my website www.travisnovitsky.com under the "Newest Work" and "Misc. Videos" galleries.

Superior Shipping

(Above: Dawn at Taconite Harbor)

I have always had a love for the big ships that ply the waters of Lake Superior.... but for some reason I've never made much of a point of trying to photograph them. I've decided in the past month that I've going to make more of an effort to do just that..... so, whenever I drive to Duluth or am just by the lake and happen to see an ore boat or other ship, I'm going to try and take some photos of it. With that being said, here are some images that I shot throughout the month of April of various vessels at different locations along the shore.



(Above and below: The M/V Burns Harbor at Silver Bay)

(Above: The Edgar B. Speer at the Two Harbors ore docks)

(Above: The H. Lee White at the Silver Bay ore docks)

(Above: The John G. Munson at the Two Harbors ore docks)