Kestrel on a wire

I haven't seen one in ages, but I spotted not one, but a pair of American Kestrels hunting an open grassy area.  I even saw one dive and pounce and the ground for a snack!

The first kestrel I spotted.  Shot from about 100yds away as I steady on a fence post.

Two kestrels in one frame.

 One the way home I spotted a small bird zipping about the brush and wagging his tail.
Turns out to be an Eastern Phoebe.

Downy Day

There were two pairs of downys raiding the feeders this morning.  I managed to catch two, then three, of the four in one frame.

The male was chasing the female around a maple tree.

  

 Three downys in one frame

Female downy, blinking. 

Male downy...

 sticking out his tongue!

And a Junco to boot!

Minnesota in April

As the snow started last evening, I happened to notice  these daffodils in bloom.  The daylight had already faded so I decided to wait until morning, speculating some contrast between the flowers and the freshly felled flurries.  Patience was rewarded.

A slough day

I saw the turtles out sunning themselves on the same log I captured the turtles last spring.  It could even be the same turtles!  The frogs were deafening.  So loud.  I figured there were so many frogs I had to be able to find one.  I looked and looked and looked.  Finally!  Their camouflage servers them well. Then I noticed the mosquito larvae.  No wonder there are so many frogs.

Two painted turtles

Red-brown colored Wood Frog

Another Wood Frog in more typical coloring

Holy mosquito larvae!

Another Osprey nest

I located a second pair of osprey preparing their nest!  I had some time to kill and was on my way to watch the osprey pair I posted about earlier.  Always watching the skies, I notice what appeared to be a raptor high up.  So I pulled over and started taking some pics from a quite a distance and ID'd the bird as an osprey.  I could here the osprey calling but it sounded too close.  Way too close.  So I looked up and directly overhead was the second osprey of the pair.  They then returned to their nearby nest and presented some nice photographic opportunities for me.

Another April Aurora

Enjoyed a nice G1 storm tonight.  Weather was agreeable.  Just a few clouds in the sky for contrast.

Glass Caribou

The weather was fabulous today.  Sunny and very still.  Caribou lake has been glassy for hours and hours.

Sunset

The Dragontree

Very faint aurora with a meteor streak and some orange light pollution
and tons of stars reflected in the lake

A pair prepares

A pair of Osprey working on renovating a nest.  I have been watching this empty nest as I thought it belonged to some bald eagles.  I will me more than content with the osprey and hope I can return and continue to get some pics.

Four sunset rainbows

A thunder storm rolled in around sunset and produced a few rainbows.  Four to be exact.  The primary rainbow is easy to see; the secondary takes some squinting.  Each rainbow is "reflected" in the water.  However a rainbow is not an object and cannot be reflected.  The reflected rainbows are generated by light that has passed through different rain drops and has traveled a different path to your eyes.  Rather than the direct path to eyes like the sky bow, the light for the lake bows travels from the raindrops to the lake surface, then to your eyes.

The flare in intensity at the bottom of the bow was due to the sun peaking between the clouds, shown below

April Aurora

We had another aurora event.  Due to clouds I missed Thursday show, but Friday's follow up was still pretty nice.  Check out the video at the bottom!

Time lapse video