Beavers on the ice

Last night I drove to a local lake near my house to see if the beavers were active yet.  As I approached the lake I could see an opening in the ice near the beaver lodge and figured they would be out.  Sure enough, as I got closer I could see two large lumps on top of the ice near the water... it was the beavers!  I spent about an hour sitting on the bank of the lake watching and photographing the beaver family.  There were four total... the parents and two young ones.  They sure were fun to watch as they took turns sitting on the ice and going for a swim.  We got a bunch of rain this morning so yesterday may have been the only opportunity to watch them on the ice.  The ice might be gone today!

Finally Free

After a VERY long winter with lots of late spring snow and cold temperatures, the rivers are finally opening up!  This was the scene today at High Falls of the Pigeon River in Grand Portage State Park.  The ice on the river has completely opened up over the past few days and the river is raging!  With plenty of snow cover still on the ground up around the headwaters of the river, the water level should stay high for quite some time.  This has got to be one of the latest ice-out dates on record. 

Below: Iceberg stuck in the Pigeon River

Tossing Chips

This time of year, wildlife is abundant as many animals are busy preparing for the coming summer season.  As is the case with many creatures, this means building a nest in order to raise their young.  Today at Grand Portage State Park (which is where I work for my day job) my co-workers told me about a large bird that they had seen climbing out of a hole in a tree.  Based on their description I told them it was probably a Pileated Woodpecker.  They showed me where they had seen it and sure enough, that's what it was.  He was diligently working all afternoon on carving out a nest cavity in a tall aspen tree.  When we first got to the tree the bird was nowhere to be seen, but we could hear a muted tapping sound.  After a few moments the woodpecker stuck his head out of the hole and promptly threw a mouthful of wood chips to the ground.  We watched him do this over and over again. 

I knew I had to get some footage of this activity, so after work I went back to the nest and he was still hard at work, tapping inside the tree then throwing the wood chips out.  I watched and photographed him for about an hour.  Hopefully this means that they will be having babies soon and we will be able to see them being fed by the parents.  This is an easily accessible location at the park so it would be neat to share this wildlife encounter with park visitors :-) 

April moonrise over the Grand Marais Lighthouse

Last night after work we headed to Grand Marais to photograph the rising full moon behind the lighthouse.  At first it looked as though we may not see the moon much if at all, because there was what appeared to be a cloud bank forming on the eastern horizon.  As it turned out, though, we were able to see the moon completely and once it rose a little ways into the sky the thin clouds started to illuminate from the moonlight and really complemented the scene.  I made plenty of photos as the moon passed behind the lighthouse, but this one where the moon is just above and to the right of the lighthouse is my favorite.  I really liked how the reflection of the moonlight and the reflection of the lighthouse light are side by side on the water.  What a magical sight!

April Ice Land

Well, I never thought I would be photographing beautiful ice on the Lake Superior shoreline this late in the spring!  Speaking of spring, only 4 more days and it will be one whole month since spring officially arrived.  Not like you can tell around here this year.  Heck, in the past week we've received about 16 inches of new snow!  At least we can take comfort in the fact that it melts quickly this time of year.  Before we know it we will be getting rain instead of snow and everybody will be complaining about the rain :-)

The photo you see here was taken this morning along the shores of Grand Portage Bay, just a half mile from our house.  Yesterday all these ice chunks were pushed into the bay by the waves, making for an incredible foreground for a landscape image.  We took a few photos of these ice chunks last night but the sky was pretty overcast and gray.  This morning at sunrise the sky was much prettier!  I am as anxious as everybody else for the snow and ice to melt and be gone for the year, but in the meantime as long as there are still scenes like this around, I am going to enjoy them while they last!

Nebraska Sunset - Heading Home

On our journey home we decided that Grand Island, Nebraska would make a nice stopover point.  So, once again we found ourselves along the Platte River watching for Sandhill Cranes at sunset.  There were still quite a few cranes in the area and we enjoyed watching them fly around the farm fields as the day drew to a close.  For sunset we stopped by the viewing platform at the Alda bridge.  I have had good luck at this spot in the past; it seems the cranes favor the section of river just downstream from the bridge.  On this evening, however, it was not the best location as there were not very many cranes landing in the area.  There were a few coming down to the river but they were too far away to see very well.  Maybe this was due to the fact that we were at the tail end of the migration, or maybe for whatever reason they just didn't want to land here for tonight.  As a result I do not have any nice crane images to share from this end of our trip, BUT we sure did have a beautiful sunset!  One of the best of the trip, in fact.  We greatly enjoyed watching the clouds change colors as the sun dropped below the horizon.  The weather was also much nicer than it was when we passed through a couple of weeks ago.  We'll take mid 60's temps over low 30's any day of the week in Nebraska :-)  At any rate, it was a supremely beautiful evening and a great way to bookend our honeymoon trip!

Southwest Rock Art

Along the first leg of our journey back to Minnesota we made a couple of short side trips from I-70 to some rock art sites.  The first of these was the "Head of Sinbad" rock art site.  This is some of the best preserved rock art in the southwest.  According to local literature these pictographs are at least 3,000 years old. 

The second site we checked out was Sego Canyon. Unlike the Head of Sinbad panel, some of the Sego Canyon pictographs have experienced a lot of vandalism.  There was one panel, however, that was high enough on the canyon wall that it was relatively untouched by vandals.  According to the BLM, Sego Canyon contains 3 culturally distinct styles of rock art: Fremont, Ute and Barrier-style.  After these quick stops we got back on the Interstate and continued our journey home.