Author: Carol Smith

About two hours into the fourth and final day of our adventure here in Sax-Zim Bog, Minnesota, and after three days of only fleeting glimpses, there he was, the star of the Bog——the Elusive One, the Great Gray Owl! What a stunning, mesmerizing creature, more than two feet in length with a 52 inch wingspan! It’s hard to believe that these owls can be so elusive with their size but they are expert at disappearing into the boreal forest. We came across a line of photographers staring intently into a stand of trees and as we drove slowly by we saw him, perched on a stump by the side of the road in plain sight. No parking was allowed along the road so we parked about a quarter mile away, set up our gear and walked down the road to the group already there. He was undeterred by the gaggle of photogs and even changed perches a couple of times but we still had an unobstructed view. It took the snow plow to flush him further back into the boreal forest. The snow plow flushed us as well, across the street to avoid being covered in salted snow that the plow scattered forcefully onto the side of the road where we had just been. Notwithstanding the close encounter with the snow plow, our close encounter with the Great Gray was a fabulous end to our time in the Bog.

We’re in Sax-Zim Bog to photograph birds, in particular owls, and more specifically, Great Gray Owls. While we’ve photographed quite a few birds so far, we have only seen, but not photographed, the Elusive One. We have, however, seen or photographed quite a few different mammals here which is not usually the case. And late yesterday afternoon after a great day of shooting birds, we drove past a single car pulled over and a person laying in the snow photographing an extremely cooperative Red Fox. We continued on, got our camera gear in our laps and pulled slowly back to the spot. The Red Fox still sat in a patch of snow, watching its surroundings. I shot out the window of the car. Who could resist that gorgeous face? Not I.

Birds don’t really spit like we do and whatever sound they make when doing a bird version of spitting certainly wouldn’t be “ptooey.” Whatever the sound though, this Black-capped Chickadee didn’t seem to want the piece of shell it picked off the black sunflower seed it was eating and used its tongue to eject it from its beak. I noticed this behavior over and over as we watched them at Sax-Zim Bog in Minnesota yesterday.

The adorable American Red Squirrel is Minnesota’s smallest tree squirrel. It is feisty and vocal but sometimes it holds still long enough for a portrait session. On our first full day at Sax-Zim Bog, we walked down a trail and at the snowy trailhead, this little guy was perched atop a snow-covered stump just watching. We were able to get fairly close and it barely moved while we took its portrait. Then, it had other business in the bog and disappeared from view.

The adorable male Vermilion Flycatcher seems to have caught something other than a fly. I think he’s standing on the trunk of a Cottonwood and so it might be bit of a seed pod from a Cottonwood tree that is stuck to his beak.

A male Ring-necked Duck floats on a pond in Arizona in late November. I was fascinated by Ring-necked Ducks during my visit to Arizona in late November. I had never seen or photographed one and now I have taken more images of Ring-necked Ducks than any other duck.

A handsome Bighorn ram posing in Yellowstone National Park in November. 

Happy New Year!

She had just surfaced from beneath the pond as we watched from the floating boardwalk in Arizona, her beak glistening with water and droplets covering her head and back. She is a female Lesser Scaup, a common bird that winters in much of the US, including California, but I had never seen one (at least to my knowledge and recollection), let alone photographed one until late last month.

I’m feeling a little frigid since I returned home after Christmas, kind of like I’ve been left out in the cold like this Bison in Yellowstone a few years ago.  My heater went out. But, as a friend pointed out to me today, I’m not a stranger to frigid temperatures so 63° in my house shouldn’t be that big a deal. So I’m putting on my big girl pants and sucking it up.  The good news is that the new system will be installed tomorrow.

Sadie is just over a year old. She is either in constant motion or sound asleep. But she is a bundle of energy when she’s awake.  Several times a day she and Arthur go into the backyard to toss and retrieve a ball to help her expend some of that pent up energy. She concentrates hard on watching Arthur, crouching down far on the opposite side of the yard, waiting, and calculating where the ball needs to be before she makes her move. She doesn’t move until the ball is at that place, then she starts slowly, inching forward in a crouch, springing up and sprinting forward before launching into the air and catching the ball.  She almost never misses. Then the game is on to race back to Arthur and drop the ball for him to do it again. What struck me, though, is that as much as she seems to live for this game, she makes Arthur work to find the ball before he can pitch it back to her. She circles around a few times in the garden, not on the grass near Arthur, but in the shrubs and bark where she drops the ball, usually near the center of a dense shrub. Then she races at top speed to the opposite side of the yard and readies herself in a crouch waiting for the next round.  I took this shot just as she slowly began her move, before making her high speed lurch to meet the ball. I discovered that except when she was in a crouch or just beginning to move, most of the shots I took contained only the top or bottom of a dog and her sudden and unpredictable bursts of speed challenged my panning skills.

A big brother is always a big brother, no matter how grown up or how old you are. I’m lucky to have two big brothers but Arthur (known as Art to everyone but me) is my oldest big brother. He’s always had my back and looked after me when I needed looking after.  And, as this image shows, big brother is still watching, even as he appears a bit exasperated about events that had just transpired. I won’t say I was the cause of the exasperated look, but then again, as a little sister, it has always been my responsibility to annoy the hell out of my big brothers whenever I had the opportunity,

Merry Christmas! With a little help from an Adobe Photoshop AI feature, Generative Fill, I added a Santa hat to a Ring-necked Duck (one of my favorite images of the year) to create this Christmas greeting.

The male Vermilion Flycatcher enjoyed bathing in the spray from a sprinkler in Arizona last month.

Watching this American White Pelican work at swallowing a fish was fascinating.  In late November, I posted (click here) an image of this Pelican as it had finally gotten the fish under control in its pouch.  In this image, taken a few frames before the fish was under control, the Pelican was struggling to keep the squirming fish inside its pouch. You’d think having that giant stretchy pouch would make it easy. After watching this bird struggle, it’s amazing they manage to eat at all.

The tiny Costa’s Hummingbird was quite cooperative a few weeks ago in Arizona. He was in a shrubby area with lots of obstructions so I took my camera off the tripod and walked a few feet to get a better view. The Nikkor Z600PF is lightweight and hand-holding it lets me move easily to follow a bird without the burden of a tripod. I was able to track him and when he perched, the freedom of hand-holding let me move easily to avoid obstructions.

A Great Egret stalks unsuspecting prey in the shallow waters of Willow Creek Reservoir near Prescott, Arizona earlier this month.

Bright yellow flowers attract the eye naturally, but this trio (looking like a face with out-stretched hands waving at me) seemed to jump into the frame and shout, “you-hoo! Take my picture!”  So I did.

It’s a little early for an appearance by Peter Cottontail but even as they were installing Christmas lights throughout the preserve in Arizona, there he was, looking a little disgruntled that Santa would be getting all the attention for the time being.

The Gambel’s Quail is very similar in appearance to the California Quail but their territories barely overlap. I’ve seen and photographed Gambel’s Quail in both Arizona and New Mexico but I have only rarely seen, and have never photographed, a California Quail (my state’s bird). I took this shot of a male Gambel’s Quail a couple of weeks ago in Arizona.