We have been waiting for the sun for a while now here at Hawk Ridge. The perpetual cloudiness reminds us of the other side of the lake. Finally the sun appeared yesterday, and the hawks were moving!

I'm sorry it has been so long since we posted on our blog. We were not expecting to have zero days off for most of the field season. Anyway, yesterday was our first full day off, and it was very exciting...because, Chris and I saw a Lynx!! We went north of Duluth, driving along the shore and then took some of the inland roads to look at the nice boreal forest. I saw something cross the road, and we pulled up to look, and Chris spotted it just sitting in the brush about 10 ft from us! It looked at us curiously for a minute or two, then slowly walked off into the forest. And, we had our cameras on our laps- what luck! You can see the ear tufts better in the second shot.

Here are some shots of the Northern Lights taken a few nights ago at Whitefish Point, MI. They lasted most of the night and were very active. The Big Dipper is also visible in some of the shots.

Nova silhouetted by the Northern Lights.

The small row of lights in the above photo is actually one of the large freighters that regularly pass by on Lake Superior.

Night Flight Images is going to the Outback Art Fair this weekend in Marquette. Looking forward to Babycakes Raspberry Muffins for breakfast, and real ethnic restaurants...Thai food...mmm. Oh, and of course the art fair will be fun. Come and visit!

Summer is naturally the time for thunderstorms and Lake Superior can produce some spectacular ones. These photos were taken a few nights ago around midnight at Whitefish Point, Michigan. As the storm approached no actual bolts could be seen the the clouds were almost constantly lit up.

As the storm neared a few bolts could be seen, but were not completely exposed.



As it passed close to the northeast some amazing strikes really lit up the night sky.


Unfortunately, after just a few of these amazing strikes the sky opened up and it began pouring sending me and my camera gear dashing for the 4Runner.

We've been busy lately with the owl banding. Not too many juveniles yet, but adult saw-whets are moving. Tomorrow I'll be headed for Blissfest for an art show. Hope to see some of you there! Here are some of the birchbark frames we've made recently.

Northern Pintail

Tahquamenon Falls

purple collage

Blue -gray Gnatcatcher

Warblers

Owls

Bosque Sunrise

We are about to begin the summer owl banding at WPBO, but I think it is time to start posting to this blog more often. It has been neglected for too long! Lately, we have been busy with a few summer art shows. We just came back from Art for All in Iron Mtn, MI and Art for All in Menominee, MI. That part of the U.P. is very beautiful, and we had a very enjoyable time. We also won a first place award for exellence at Iron Mtn, and Best Visiting Artist award at Menominee. Thanks very much to those who liked our work!

If you are interested in coming to see our booth, there are three more shows this summer:

BlissFest- Bliss, MI July 8-10

Outback Art Show- Marquette, MI July 30-31

Blueberry Festival- Paradise, MI August 19-21

Or... you can come and visit us at Whitefish Point, where we are back on a night schedule banding owls. For details about this, please contact WPBO: wpbo.org

Traveling from Iron Mtn to Menominee, MI. Not sure if this raccoon is comfortable or stuck!

We had to go back and get a picture of this- along a random county road.

We've been quite busy for the last few weeks, shifting to a new website look and feel. It is now easier to see our galleries, and you can purchase images online if you are interested. Please enjoy the site, and let us know what you think!

Nova & Chris

Here are a few more photos from our visit to Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge last month. This beautiful refuge offers water, food and shelter to wildlife in the Chihuahuan desert near Socorro, New Mexico.

Northern Shoveler

Red-tailed Hawk

Northern Pintail

Snow Goose

Snow & Ross's Geese

Snow Goose

Snow Goose

The Owl Bar & Cafe

The last real stop of our trip was at Bosque Del Apache National Wildlife refuge in New Mexico. The refuge is particularly well know for the large numbers of Sandhill Cranes and Snow Geese that occur here during migration and in winter. Thanks to friends from our time in Texas who volunteer at Bosque we were able to visit them at the refuge for a couple of days. We worked with Erv & Sandra last winter at Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife Refuge. They then spent several months leading canoe trips along the Rio Grande river near falcon dam. We were fortunate enough to join them on one of these trips. It was truly a unique and amazing experience to journey down a stretch of this river border of the U.S. & Mexico. These canoe trips have since been canceled due to the insane level of violence currently occurring along the border. After a month and half on the road sleeping in a tent we very much enjoyed having beds and electricity again thanks to Irv & Sandra. Bosque was amazing and the experience of watching thousands of cranes and geese leaving the pools were they had spent the night was an unforgettable experience. Here are a few of our Sandhill Crane photos from the refuge.