Wildlife

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Fellow Ice Wanderer

Any idea who this is? I came across him near the shore on Cedar Lake. Take some time to improve your blog, read my post of photobogging tips from yesterday. If you read yesterday's post, you'll know what this is: Beautiful San Diego California This is post 97, so 100 is only days away — come back for the party!

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Duck, Turtles & Trash - Saturday Moment of Zen

Obviously this was taken in the summer, but I was thinking about turtles earlier; what do turtles do under the ice in the winter for fun? Do they sleep all day? Raccoons & Possums are still in my trash every night and the Mallards, Wood Ducks, Nuthatches & Shovelers left a while ago — so what are the turtles & bees up to? I could check with Wikipedia, but I'm feelin' lazy and sort of like the image of the turtles playing cards and telling fish stories.

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Two Raccoons in a Tree

Minneapolis Photographer Mitch Rossow presents daily photos of Minneapolis. Cityscapes, People & Perspectives: Mitch explains composition and techniques.

I wanted to add some color to this gray morning, so I went back and found this little guy and his brother. One morning in August, I heard all this commotion coming from out my widow and went out to investigate. Something from the night got caught up a tree when the sun came up. I watched these little devils for an hour and took over 200 pics — gotta love digital. They shuffled around the tree and eventually came down on their own and high-ring-tailed it back to the woods across the street. Processing this picture was unusual. Because of the harsh morning light, they were in high contrast and with the shadows all over in the tree I had to reduce the contrast & saturation and brighten the midtones. All the things I normally, only backwards. Thanks for all the great comments over the holidays, I was out visiting family the whole time. I got up early each day and posted, but after that, had little time go looking at other photo blogs. Hopefully I'll get some time this week. If you aren't familiar with the daily city photo blog concept, go check this out and see the world!

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Saturday Moment of Zen - 15 Ducklings

In remembrance of spring.

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Northern Shovelers Arrive in Minneapolis

Last Friday they showed up — bobbing on the gentile waves of Lake of the Isles. I took a bunch of pictures of them with my dubious 70-210mm Nikkor. Alas, something was wrong. I bought that lens a few months ago and was starting to notice a problem with it. The pictures I took looked horrible. What was wrong? Turns out, that great deal I got was on a film lens not a digital one. I took it back to National Camera and they took it back! That is a great company. I could save money buying things online, but I prefer seeing stuff before I buy it and getting great help. I bought the wrong lens at Roseville, but went back to the Golden Valley store to see Steve; he knew what was wrong. And I bought a new lens. That damn bird cost me $500. So here is the new and improved Northern Shoveler I shot yesterday morning with my new Nikon 70-300mm VR. There are about 30 of these lil' guys chugging around the lake dabbling away. I chased a Pileated Woodpecker for a while but he wasn't following his lighting cues.

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White-Breasted Nuthatch

Another critter joined me on my walk today. Learn more about the white-breasted nuthatch.

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Duck Portrait

Meet the fearless duck standing guard over the entrance to the Como Zoo. She didn't mind my taking her picture, but I think she was a little upset over the lack of payment. She took it in stride though, like water off a... I must remember to bring food with me when I chase the local wild life.

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Purple Delights

I saw the purple invasive plants in the background and changed to my telephoto so that I could group the thistle in the foreground with the soft, out-of-focus plants in the back. Just as I got the picture framed up, this little hero dropped in for his close-up!