When it comes to cranes, it's always hard to pick a "favorite" shot. That being said, I think this is my favorite image from this year's trip to see the cranes at Crex Meadows Wildlife Area in Wisconsin. This is also one of the last photos I took before we left the wildlife area. I love the flight pose of the bird in the foreground and I love the shallow depth of field making everything in the background softly out of focus. The two cranes taking flight (one sharp in the foreground and one soft in the background) tie the the two areas of focus together nicely. Such magnificent birds! I have been photographing them for close to 10 years and I never tire of seeing them.
One of the neat things we really noticed this year during our visit to Crex Meadows was the seemingly high number of young cranes (called colts). Last year we didn't really notice them but the conditions were not good for visibility either thanks to heavy fog cover. This year we noticed a lot of them. They are easy to tell apart from the adults because their heads are brown and haven't yet developed the distinctive red patch that is found on the adults. They are also, of course, quite a bit smaller than the adults. We saw several family groups of three, with two adults and one colt. I don't remember seeing any groups of four, with two colts, but it sure was neat watching these family groups stick together and watch out for each other. In this picture you can see the colt on the left, standing partially behind one of the adults.
Earlier this week Jessica and I headed south for some bird-watching. We visited Crex Meadows Wildlife Area in Grantsburg, Wisconsin to see the Sandhill Cranes that migrate through that area in the fall. We spent two mornings in the wildlife area and saw thousands of cranes. It was cloudy both days so the light was pretty flat and it was COLD. There was even a little bit of snow on the ground. The cranes hung around for most of the morning, though, and eventually the light got good enough to get some decent shots. This is probably my favorite photo from the trip, as I just love the reflections of the cranes in the water. In addition to the cranes we saw several other birds including geese, ducks, coots, swans, bald eagles, hawks, kingfishers and meadowlarks. It sure was a fun weekend, we just wish the weather had been a little bit nicer. We were hoping to bring our bikes along and spend some time biking around the wildlife area, but it was too cold for that :-(
There was a pretty neat sunset the other day, one that I couldn't resist photographing. As I was driving home from work there was this very cool cloud lingering on the horizon to the west. It had been cloudy and rainy all day but in the late afternoon the sky had mostly cleared up. By the time I went home the clouds were starting to come back in and the cloud you see here was on the leading edge. I went down the beach about 1/4 mile from the house and photographed the cloud and sunset over Grand Portage Bay. I waited for the sun to peek through this gap in the cloud, then shot an image at f22 to make a nice star-burst on the sun. It was a fitting end to a day that was filled with changing weather conditions!
With snow in the forecast for tonight and tomorrow, today I'm choosing to share a photo of what may very well be the last bit of vibrant fall color in Grand Portage for this year. This photo was taken yesterday along the Mt. Josephine grade of Highway 61 overlooking the Susie Islands and Isle Royale National Park. The last 6 miles of Highway 61 approaching Canada still has some nice golden orange color today, but it probably won't last through the weather front that is supposed to be passing through over the next 24 hours. Luckily, we have cameras to record these scenes so we can look back at them and enjoy them whenever we like!
The Porcupine Mountains in Michigan have some of the most beautiful forest I've ever seen. This photo was made in a random location along South Boundary Road in Porcupine Mountains Wilderness State Park. I was driving along when I noticed an abundance of ferns underneath the maples on the left side of the road. The afternoon sunlight was sublime and I couldn't resist pulling over and wandering around in this section of the forest. I wanted to spend more time in this location but I also wanted to make it to the Presque Isle River in time to photograph the river before it got dark. Guess I'll just have to return here in the future to do some more exploring :-)
Earlier this week Jessica and I did some hiking within the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness just off the Gunflint Trail in northeast Minnesota. We did the Caribou Rock Trail all the way to where it intersects with the Border Route Trail at Rose Lake. This is NOT an easy hike! We were prepared for a tough hike, as all the guide books say it is a difficult hike and takes much more time than you would expect. Even so, the trail was much more rugged than we were expecting! You are pretty much always hiking either uphill or downhill and the hills are often very steep. So steep, in fact, that this time of year with the majority of the leaves already blanketing the ground, it can be very difficult to tell where the trail goes. Several of the slopes along the trail were more like goat trails than people trails. It's hard to believe that a trail was constructed through such demanding terrain.
The difficulty is worth it, though, as the sights along the trail are spectacular. You pass by 4 different lakes, 2 just outside the BWCA (West Bearskin and Moss) on the first half of the hike and 2 within the boundary waters (Duncan and Rose) on the second half. There are magnificent views of each lake as you hike past them on the surrounding hilltops. The last overlook of the hike is arguably the most dramatic as you sit on an open rock ledge high above Rose Lake overlooking the vast U.S./Canada border country that surrounds you.
The final reward of the hike is a visit to Stairway Falls on Stairway Portage, which connects Duncan Lake to Rose Lake. Stairway Falls is located within a beautiful rocky gorge lined with moss and cedar trees. We were there at just the right time of day to see some amazing sun rays penetrating down into the gorge from above the waterfall. According to the guide book, the hike was 4 miles from the parking area to the Rose Lake overlook, making this an 8-mile round-trip hike. According to our GPS unit, it was just over 5 miles from the parking area to Rose Lake, which would make for just over 10 miles round-trip. Whichever was right, the guide book or the GPS, one thing is for certain: this was a strenuous hike with rewards that made it well worth the effort to get there!
