UnCommon grounds

Last weekend the Common Redpoll finches showed up at my feeders.  They have moved south from their Canadian arctic breeding grounds. They were enjoying my offering of niger thistle which has been waiting for their arrival.  The Black-capped Chickadees and other locals are more interested in the black oil sunflower seeds.

The chickadees are always squabbling.
I happened to capture this sequence of a split-second, dive-bomb attack.

 Chickadees always look so dapper. 

How do you measure up?

There are a lot fewer opportunities in the winter months to play around with macro photography, so when the kids found a spider crawling up the wall I had to try.  I used by 10x macro filter for most shots, then added the 4x for a total of 14x.  It was hard to get him to hold still; I had to chase him around with a piece of paper and keep re-positioning.  Then he did a couple really impressive acrobatic moves like jumping from the table to my camera lens.  I'll admit, that made me jump.

Eight eyes for you

 Cleaning his foot

 5mm x 15mm

 Chilling on my cymbal stand I use as a lighting stand.

Steam Devils on Lake Superior

Bright sun and "warm" water brought out lots of sea smoke this morning, along with Steam Devils!  Steam devils are small, weak, swirling air masses created by the temperature difference between the water surface (32 to 34 F this morning) and the air temperature (a chilly -10 F).  The sea smoke fog over the water surface makes them visible.  Conditions have to be just right for them to form, thus they are sort of rare.  The bright sun added some nice cloud iridescence as well.  As seen from 23rd St E in Duluth, MN.

I managed to get pictures and video, but the bright sun and the glare off the water made shooting difficult.  It was hard to see without being blinded.  My eyes were watering and the tears were freezing to my eye lashes and cheeks and I kept fogging, then icing, up my glasses.  Such a tough life when I am taking pictures and I should be at work!

Sea smoke, glitter trail, and cloud iridescence.

Steam Devil with iridescence in the spout!

Small spouts visible 

More Cloud iridescence

City on the Lake

Bright sun and lots of glass making interesting reflections and shadows.

Visual benefits of -10 F

A chilly, bright morning means sun dogs! Seen here across a hay field in Saginaw, MN

Cloud iridescence over the sea smoke on Lake Superior as seen from the Copper Top Church in Duluth

And an Erythritic Turkey in a box elder tree

A group of 14 wild turkeys with a erythritic (red) hen. Many of the other turkeys display partial erythritic coloring on their wings. I was hoping to get some pictures of this group of turkeys I usually see when I am at my parents in West Fargo...the red hen was quite a bonus.  A compliment to the smokey colored turkeys I have posted about before.

I hope to update this post more info about erythritic turkeys.

English lessons

When Millennials make signs:

Taken at Kohl's with my crappy phone.