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.

Dog days of Winter

A chilly -18 F this morning.  My wife left the house first this morning and soon phoned back, "Sun dogs!"  So I hurried the kids into the car and headed to daycare with a few stops along the way for pics.  Because the sun is continually rising and changing its angle with the atmosphere, and the atmosphere is continually changing with wind and clouds, the presentation of this atmospheric phenomena continually changes.  Sometimes it lasts but moments.  Today it presented for a long time, culminating with a halo.

7:46am CST at Munger Shaw Rd

Sun dogs with solar pillar rising up

7:51 am over Caribou Lake

Sun dogs with solar pillar down

 8:09 am from Hwy 53 near Twig, MN

Sun dogs, 22 degree solar halo, and a very faint upper tangent arc that is barely visible