Winter in Paradise (part 1)

It is hard to know how to describe winter up here on Lake Superior. Simply telling people we have "lots of snow" does not really accurately describe how much our lives revolve around this substance. Moving snow around can take up a large part of the day. Watching the snow fall slowly or quickly, vertically or horizontally depending on the wind. Looking out at the blue ice on the bay, combined with the occasional sunshine that makes us feel like it is all worth it. I must say, winter on Lake Superior is pretty wonderful. Growing up in an area that was very very cold (-40 at times) without lots of snow, I always wished for snowy, warm winters. We presently have about 4 feet of snow in the backyard, and even with the polar vortex, did not get anything close to -40. As long as we remember to enjoy the snow and leave town every once in a while, winter is a happy snug feeling season at Whitefish Point.

Pine Marten in woodshed

Our house in the snow

American Goldfinch eating snow

woodshed with a little bit of snow

Tahquamenon Falls sunset

Jack-pine loaded with snow at Whitefish Point

It's been quite a while since we were active on the blog, but we hope to start doing regular posts again. We're once again hunkered down along the shore of Lake Superior at Whitefish Point again for the winter. We headed back east to visit family for the holidays and took the opportunity to spend a day photographing along the Jersey shore. New Jersey gets a bad rap for a lot of things, but the birding is world class. We headed to Barnaget Light on Long Beach Island, a spot famous for its wintering Harlequin Ducks. Despite all the time I spent birding in Jersey while living near Philadelphia this was our first visit to Barnaget in the winter. The weather was perfect and the birds quickly showed us why this site has such a great reputation for winter birding.

Long-tailed Duck

Long-tailed Duck

Harlequin Duck

Harlequin Duck

Harlequin Duck

Harlequin Ducks

Harlequin Duck

Harlequin Ducks

Harlequin Ducks

Northern Lights

We had nice northern lights the other night for Chris' birthday here at Whitefish Point. We are currently owl banding, but the owls have been rather slow the last week.

Star trails & Northern Lights

reds & greens

We are thrilled to be back up at Whitefish Point for the spring and summer owl banding season. Especially since we just bought a house up here at the Point! It is amazing and wonderful to have a home base finally, and we will still be traveling as field biologists, so our travel itch should be appeased to some extent. Here are a few photos from the first few days back up north.

Common Redpoll

Pine Grosbeak

Great Gray Owl

Great Gray Owl hunting

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