nature

A Canadian fishing trip

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The sights (and sounds) from a recent Canadian fishing trip are still fresh in my mind.  With good friends and family we headed north of Ignace, Ontario for a week of fishing.  After one sunny day the rain moved in, but we fished, explored, got lost, found our way, fished some more, laughed, and didn’t let the continuing rain dampen our adventures.  This is an area of lakes, woods, and sky.  The woods are dense, the lakes are everywhere with rocks and trees coming right to the water’s edge, and the sky opens out over every lake.  It is remote with towns few and far between.  We took ATV trails through the woods to reach remote lakes, and with the multiple days of rain we drove through mud and water washouts. We caught walleye and pike in abundance and enjoyed our shore lunches.  Eagles were everywhere, loons serenaded us, and we saw ducks that will soon be migrating south. To top off the adventures of the week, the Northern Lights made an appearance on our final night in Canada.  A memorable and fun trip!

The busyness of a hummingbird

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I watched in amazement at this tiny hummingbird as he flitted among the bee balm blossoms in the yard.  He would work all around the edges of one flower, fly off to an adjacent flower and do the same, then to another and another.  After about a minute he would land on a nearby branch and rest.  And then he’d repeat the same thing all over again, sometimes moving to a blooming hosta and then back to the bee balm, or sometimes to a clump of catmint nearby, and retreating back to the bee balm.  It was a treat to observe and marvel at something so very small with all this energy.

Water lilies

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As we enter the last third of summer, our lakes in Minnesota and Wisconsin are starting to bloom with water lilies.  Looking across the water surface you can see areas of white and yellow.  We’ve seen muskrats enjoying a meal of water lilies, and deer will also wade into the water to graze on them.  This water lily is not endanger of being eaten as I photographed it at the Marjorie McNeely Conservatory in Como Park.  Like its “wild” relatives it was happy to open its petals to the bright sun and soak up the trailing end of summer.

End of a spring day

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It had been a windy and cloudy day, but as the evening wore on the wind began to die down.  We were fishing as the air became still.  Eagles were flying overhead and the crappies were biting.  The dark clouds were still above but the sun moved below them lighting up the opposite shore.  The leaves were full on some of the trees and yet others had only begun to leaf out, filtering the sunlight as it came through the trees.  The low light and the calmness created a beautiful reflection of the end of a spring (finally!) day.

Baltimore oriole

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It was a cold and wintry day last Sunday that even included a snowfall.  We were inside looking out and not enjoying this winter weather in mid-May.  But it seemed to invigorate all the birds in the area as they were coming in and out of the yard, looking for food on the ground and in the feeders.  We put some orange slices in a hanging feeder and realized they were a magnet for the birds.  This Baltimore oriole became very vigilant in guarding what he saw as “his” oranges.  There were a number of Rose-breasted grosbeaks that challenged him, and only occasionally won the challenge.  All these birds were a welcome colorful sight on the cold drab day, and a delight to watch.