What a day!

Well I took a little time away from the office today and took another drive through Carlos Avery. As usual, it didn't disappoint and I was able to see quite a few birds today. They had a Prescribed burn this morning so there was a bit of smoke in the air but not enough to present any problems. It was another beautiful sunny day and even if I hadn't seen any birds, it would have been a successful trip. Here are just a couple of the photos from today. I'll post more tomorrow or the next day.

By the way, if I have any of my identifications wrong on any of my photos, please let me know! :)


Song Sparrow:

A beautiful day to be out . . .

Yesterday was a bright sunny day, probably not the best for taking pictures, but it wusre was nice to be out at Carlos Avery again. It was more crowded than I've seen it in a while, but with a day like that, how can you blame people for wanting to be outside. I saw lots of birds, but I have to admit, with as many people as there were, most of them had collected in the center of the park so it was quite difficult to see, and definitely not good for photographs. With all of that said, I was able to get a few shots.


Wood Duck:


Bald Eagle:

Non-Minnesota Pictures?

I realize that this blog is about photography in Minnesota, but I took a trip down to Florida last January with my Mother and we spent a lot of time taking pictures of birds at Ding Darling National Park, and the Corkscrew Swamp. These two pictures happen to be from the Corkscrew swamp, but I liked them and thought I would share them.

Northern Parula:



Gray Catbird:

Carlos Avery Again?

I had forwarded this blog to my sister and she was quite excited aout some of the pictures I had taken, but she asked if I had any pictures of Great Blue Herons. So here ya go sis, this is a picture of a Great Blue Heron that I took last week at Carlos Avery. I'm also including a picture of Red Winged Blackbird . . . just because I can:)

Great Blue Heron:


Red Winged Blackbird:

Barred Owl

Over the last few years we have had a pair of Barred Owls living in our neighborhood and I've taken numerous photos of them. At Christmas this year, we had the family over and the owl flew into our yard and landed in a tree right outside our bedroom window. The entire family had a great opportunity to see this wonderful bird. After everyone had gotten there fill of watching the bird, I snuck out the front door and around the house and took a series of pictures. Here's one that I really liked:

Barred Owl:

Carlos Avery WMA

Last week my father and I went birding up at Carlos Avery WMA (see the link on the right). We were a little early for the migration so I'm hoping that this week will yield a few more birds. Even though we were a bit early we did see some nice birds and probably identified about 20 different species. All and all, we had a really nice afternoon. Here are a couple pictures from outing:

Eastern Bluebird:


Canada Goose on it's nest:

Another visitor in the yard . . .

I've been working in my home office lately, and right outside my office window a pair of Eastern Phoebes have decided to make a nest on top of the flood lights on the side of my house. Here's a picture of our new house mate:

Wild Turkey in the Back Yard!

This spring has been fun since we've had so many birds in the yard. The wild turkeys come through almost every day now, and have been roosting in the oak trees in our yard at night. They appear to like the small clearing just off our deck so they spend quite a bit of time strutting around, gobbling and making a good show for us. Here are a couple photographs of the birds from about a week ago:

Red Shouldered Hawks!

A few weeks ago I heard a hawk calling repeatedly outside my window. So I went out to investigate and found that we had a pair of Red Shouldered hawks building a nest in my backyard! I was quite excited to see this and wanted to share a couple pictures that I've taken in the last week or so. I'm pretty sure that I'll have more opportunities to photograph these birds so there will be more posts and pictures in the future.

Here is the female in front of her nest:

Here is the pair mating:

. . . and so it begins!

I've spent more and more time over the last couple years learning to identify birds. The main focus that I've had is taking photographs of birds in and around my home in Minnesota. When I first started it took quite a bit of time learning how to photograph birds, especially smaller birds that tend to "flit" about. I have a lot more to learn but the journey sure is fun! I hope that those who read this blog enjoy my thoughts and pictures.