Blue Jays

Occasionally Blue Jays will turn up at my feeder.

 

More Frost on the Prairie

Another frosty morning on the Prairie. More frost photos can be found on my website.

CopperDog 150 Sled Dog Race Finish Day 3

On the last day of the race we spent the morning skiing. We arrived at the race well ahead of the time the first finishers were scheduled to arrive but the course conditions were very good and two teams had already arrived when we reached the course. It started to snow just as we arrived.

Some of the mushers arrived in a group. Here three teams were neck and neck. the second team passed the first team just before the finish line.

We walked around and watched to dogs get fed. This dog was really hungry and finished his foot and tried to get the food of another dog but he was constrained by the harness.

As this team arrived another team was getting fed and they tried to stop and eat the food from the team that had already been fed.

More photos from the race can be found on my website.

Start of the CopperDog 150 Sled Dog Race Day 2

On Day two of the CopperDog 150 Sled Dog Race we drove up to Eagle Harbor to watch the start of the race. The mushers start in reverse order, that is the leading musher is the last to start.

We walked around quite a bit watching the racers leave the starting area.

We also spent time watching the teams being hooked up as well as being brought to the starting line. It was a little different this year because someone had packed the snow down in the park so it was much easier for the mushers and volunteers to hook up the dogs and get them to the starting line.

Every year the kids get bored with the race and usually start playing in the snow. this little girl was building a snowman.

More photos from the race can be found on my website.

Apostle Islands Ice Caves – Ice

As people walked around through the uplifted ice pieces would break off and get scattered around. Some of them made beautiful subject for photography.

More photos from the Apostle Islands Ice Caves can be found on my website.

 

Apostle Islands Ice Caves – Ice Patterns

The clear ice at the Apostle Islands in addition to providing some nice ice fractures also provided some really interesting ice patterns. I also spent a considerable time looking for interesting ice patterns.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

More photos from the Apostle Islands Ice Caves can be found on my website.

Apostle Islands Ice Caves – Ice Fractures

Ice fractures are a subject that I love to photograph but all too frequently can’t find during the winter. Conditions have to be just right to find them. There has to be a stretch of cold weather that freezes the water. There can’t be much snow, no sleet or rain nor can it thaw and freeze. This year things came together at the Apostle Islands Ice Caves. There was open water followed by a very cold stretch and no snow to speak of. While everyone else was wandering around looking at the ice caves I was spending time looking for beautiful examples of ice fractures. Given the amount of clear ice they were not hard to find. The ice was so clear in some spots that I could see the bottom of the lake.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

More photos from the Apostle Islands Ice Caves can be found on my website.

Apostle Islands Ice Caves 2015 – The Shoreline

Here are a few more photos from my trip to the Apostle Islands Ice Caves. These were taken along the shoreline. We found that the ice close to Meyers Beach was not as good as it was a mile or more down the shoreline.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

More photos from the Apostle Islands Ice Caves can be found on my website.

 

Apostle Islands Ice Caves 2015

When we were at Meyers Beach the first weekend in February there was open water at the Apostle Islands Ice Caves. The following weekend strong northwest winds on pushed the ice onto the south shore along the ice caves. The bitterly cold weather following the storm solidified the ice. The National Park Service opened access to the caves on February 28th.

We made our visit on Monday March 2nd. We were returning from a trip to Calumet, Michigan and drove down to Ashland, Wisconsin so we could get an early start to the caves. When we arrived at 8:30am we were surprised to find that the parking lot was already full. We ended up parking along the Meyers Beach Access Road.

We were prepared for a difficult walk out to the ice caves. This year, for the first time in my experience, there were large patches of bare ice on the lake. In addition to the bare ice there were areas along the shore where the ice had been pushed together an lifted up. It looked like someone had broken glass and stuck it up from the ice. As a result both my wife and I were glad that we had ice cleats and trekking poles for the walk to the caves.

When we arrived we found that the ice was not nearly as impressive as it was last year. The first shot is from last year and the second shot from this year from approximately the same location.

However, as we continued to walk along the shore the ice formations became more interesting. We actually walked further along the shore that we have in past years and only stopped when the jumbled ice made it difficult to get through.

With the large amount of bare ice I was able to take many photographs of ice fractures. Ice fractures are one of my favorite winter subjects but it’s rare that I can find them. Usually the ice is covered with snow and you can’t see the ice fractures. The last time I found them at the ice caves was 2007 and there were only a few of them to be found.

In addition to ice fractures there were some beautiful ice formations in the ice. It looked like the ice had broken up then refroze with the broken sections imbedded in the ice at various levels.

Another interesting subject were pieces of ice that had broken off and looked like small diamonds.

This was the first year that I saw an airplane land by the ice caves. It made several passes out on the lake before landing on the smooth ice. Soon two people got out and walked over to the ice caves.

A number of people took advantage of the large amounts of smooth ice to ice skate out to the caves. Several of them skated way out onto the ice. This year it was probably one of the better ways to get around on the ice.

More photos from the Apostle Islands Ice Caves can be found on my website.

Birds in a snowfall

Snow has been hard to come by this winter. We had a brief snow squall last week and I was able to capture a few birds before it ended.

Downy Woodpecker

House Sparrow

Northern Cardinal

Hairy Woodpecker

More bird photographs from Canadian Hill Farm can be found on my website.