Post 105. Shots around the Lake.

Despite the  news that we are supposed to get at least one more round of snow, we are declaring it spring.  We have had several days of 50 and 60 degree temperatures, and nearly all the snow from winter is gone.  The lakes are starting to melt, and even though today was quite grey I still got some interesting pictures near Lake Kampeska.

My first sighting this year of a nice yellow-headed blackbird.  (Very pretty but kind of a let down that it's just a common blackbird.)

Awesome tree trunk.

 

Lake Kampeska.  There was melted water, then ice, then some really pretty light blue ice.  I thought it was neat.

 





Some ducks.  I'm still a bit annoyed that so much of the wildlife is so skittish.  I joked with my husband that we should have brought bread to convince the bird to stay closer, but he said he didn't these birds were tame enough to know what bread was.  And then I remembered that when I first moved out here we actually tried some bread, and yeah, they weren't the least bit interested. 

Enjoy spring.  In South Dakota springs lasts approxiately one week to ten days.  Then, if it's a typical year, we skip right to 80 and 90 degree summer days.

See on,
Julee

Day 104. Going to China.

Excitement in my life.  My husband has been working as part of a team implementing new products at a China facility and he has been hearing for the past six months that he might need to go to China.  But he didn't really want to go all that badly, so kind of delicately avoided requests until now.  He knew late last week that he would be going to China soon.

Also this past week I was debating about how I was going to use three days of vacation that are 'use or lose' by June 30th because, poor me, my husband is going to China and then the Boundary Waters with his dad, so he won't have vacation time for me.

But then my husband commented that he was due to travel to China on Memorial Day weekend - wait - what?  Can it get any first world sadder for Julee?  (Just kidding, I am actually tougher than that.)  But then my brain kicked into gear and remembered my trip to Germany. 

You just buy a plane ticket and get on a plane and go.. anywhere.  Easy peasy.

Plus Memorial Day is a work holiday, so I would only have to use one floating holiday and my three 'must use' vacation days to have the whole week off.  Holy catfish what if I go to China too?

And now I have plane tickets. 

So, with all that drama so far this week I am cheating and posting pictures from my trip to the botanical gardens in St. Louis last summer where they had a chinese lantern exhibit at night.  It was awesome. 

And real life China will be awesome too. 

Now I just have to apply for my visa and get my shots ;)

(The third picture with the white dragon is my favorite picture out of all the pictures I have ever taken.)

See on.
Julee

Day 103. Seagull part 2.

In previous years I do not remember such a large number of seagulls around Watertown.  Or maybe I'm just noticing them because some of the creatures (turtles, pelicans, butterflies, bugs, dragonflies, etc.) that I love photographing are still hidden away waiting for spring.

Regardless, I got more neat shots of a seagull hanging out near some finger lakes.  These birds are very skittish.  Any movement by a human, no matter how far away, seems to set them into flight.  But with this guy his flight turned out to be right in front of me, so that was a treat.

See on,
Julee

Day 102. Wildlife (and two dogs) amidst a final winter storm.

Another day, another winter storm.  A wet and windy story that is getting very tiresome.  But my patient husband was kind enough to chauffeur me around town so I could look for photo ops while he minded the slippery roads.  (Best husband of the day award to my husband!)

It was quite near dusk, so none of my pictures are fabulously in focus since everything was handheld and arranged on the fly, but at least I got a few shots in.

This first shot, of two dogs who had obviously been sitting out in the snow, caught my eye because they were posed perfectly still, on their front steps, both with snow on top of their heads, as were driving by.  My reflexes were slow, so my husband actually had to turn the car around a block later, then turn around again after we passed the dogs a second time so that I could be on the correct side of the car.  During our second drive by the dogs decided we were worthy of a chase.  So I was sadly thinking I missed my opportunity.  But we still drove by a third time.  And as luck would have it, while they weren't on the steps they had sat down.

I wish my focus had been better, and that I had been a bit more to the left of the dogs.  This could have been a great shot.  But it is still kind of neat, and my favorite from the day.

Below are some deer we came across.  They just stood and stared while I took pictures, then my husband told me that as soon as I turned my back on them they ran off.  But I got my shot.

Finally is a blue heron.  Three times in two days I have tried to photograph this guy.  Boy is he skittish.  But for this last shot we actually parked in front of a hardware store where a variety of metal railings allowed me to approach the bird without him seeing me. 

See on.
Julee

Day 101. Big Moose.

Our world has been full of heaviness this week.  The seriousness that can be life was all too clear, and even those of us far removed from Texas and Massachusettes found ourselves sadder and more reflective.

In South Dakota and Minnesota we experienced yet another impressive winter storm.  Cold and wind and snow arrived back with a fury.  The snow had been gone.  It was gone, gone, gone just a week ago and we had started looking forward to spring.

But spring wasn't in the cards yet.

Despite the rotten weather, the sun finally showed up again yesterday afternoon and my husband and I drove around just to enjoy the sun.  (It was below 30 degrees here, so too darn cold to take a walk.  But a drive worked to raise our sprits.)

And on our drive we found this awesome wooden moose.

What a wonderful thing.  When I saw it I couldn't help but smile.  For my photo I wanted to show how large it was, so included the roof of the garage in the shot.  I know the picture is busy, with a number of distractions, but frankly to me that increased the fun factor of the scene, especially the tiny santa.  (Or at least Santa appears tiny compared to the moose.)

On our drive we also got to see some pretty amazing drifts.  It was impossible for me to believe that all this snow had fallen in less than a week - in mid April. 

See on.
Julee

Day 100. Holiday spirit.

A walk around town nearly always leads to some sort of photo find.  Today I found a bush, still all dressed up for the holidays, where some birds were hanging out. 

I did not get the greatest shot, but it was still kind of a fun photo.  (There is a second bird on the far left that I handily cut off - awesome - but this was still the best picture of the bunch.) 

Keep in mind it is mid-April.  Even my husband and I, procrastinators that we are, have put away our holiday decorations.  (Okay, almost all of them.  But you know, maybe the Easter bunny could have gotten confused and filled up the stockings again.)  But truly, I am a HUGE fan of sparkling lights, so I am always disappointed after about that first week in January when everybody stops turning on their holiday lights.  How much happier would the long darkness of winter be if we had bright, sparkly lights all winter long?

See on.
Julee

Day 99. Hungry Seagulls.

With the inches of fresh snow that fell after the prior period of snow-free, spring weather the birds are hungry.  There is a farmer with land right next to our office where we discard our feed samples after testing.  It was a fun sight to see hundreds of seagulls descend on that feed pile. 

I first noticed the birds and the feed on Friday, at which point the feed pile had to be three or four feet high.  Today all that was left was a small pile, perhaps a foot high.  I can't be sure that the farmer didn't disperse some of the feed to his cattle over the weekend, but if not, boy can those birds eat!

(After my long week out of the office, I was in quite a hurry to get home Friday night, so did not take the time for a picture until this morning.  But I still think I got a pretty good photo.)

The feed is dried distillers grain, basically corn remaining after fermentation of the sugars to ethanol.  Yummy!

See on,
Julee

Day 98. Spring delayed.

Bad enough there was one winter storm last week that brought snow back.  But this weekend we got more snow and ice, and it sounds like the weathermen are saying even more will fall mid-week.  Nothing much we can do except get through it, but it is miserable. 

The poor creatures around us agree.

 

I had to be very patient to capture a robin being still.  I must have seen about ten robins during my walk today, but they were all running, running, running.  (See the picture below.  That is how most of them looked.)

I found one cute little squirrel who let me get quite close.  But then he grabbed his corn on the cob and ran up the tree.

 

Stay warm.  Think thoughts of sun and spring.  Surely it  can't be long now.
See on,
Julee

Day 97. St. James Minnesota.

I escaped my hometown right before the biggest blizzard/ ice storm of the century. I escaped to southwestern Minnesota where we got some ice, but it stayed warm enough to keep roads open and non-slippery.  Tonight apparently our luck will run out and we, along with the rest of Minnesota and South Dakota, are predicted to get a lot of snow.

So I am suspecting I will remain holed up at the Super 8 hotel in St. James until Friday.

But tonight I ventured about a half mile to the Hickory Inn for dinner.  (It was suggested they were the only place in town with wine.  That was true and it was delicious.)

During my drive I ran into two sites that interested me, the steeple of the Lutheran church and a neat old train at the park. 

Here is the best of what I could capture with my phone.

See on.
Julee

Day 96. Foggy.

Today I drove to Albert Lea, MN.  I started my drive in the rain and fog, and the fog followed me most of the drive.  This was one of those fogs where the interstate had fine visibility, so driving was no trouble, but the land right off the interstate had low visibility.

What was cool was the windmills I came upon near I-90 in Minnesota.  I could see the base of each windmill but I could only see the blades when they were in the lower positions.

This is my best shot with my camera phone. I will replace with one from my Nikon next weekend once I get home if any of those are better.

These windmills were perfectly located near an exit. I was able to exit the interstate and drive 1/4 mile so I was nice and close.  (And safely away from speeding traffic.)

See on.
Julee

Day 95. Seagull.

The lakes now have bits of open water here and there.  There are still large areas of ice, but the open water is already being enjoyed by the wildlife.

 

Today I got a nice shot of a seagull, one of my favorite birds.  At first I was taking photos of them catching fish and eating, however when I got home I saw there were actually a lot of dead fish sitting right on and near the beach.  (So they really weren't fishing as much as taking advantage of a ready food source. I didn't find those picture quite as enjoyable after that.)

But I love seagulls and was very excited to find them living in South Dakota when I moved back years ago.  My previous exposure to seagulls had been on beaches in Florida, but there are plenty around both Brookings, SD and Watertown, SD.  Watertown has a couple of moderate size lakes, so that makes sense.  But there really isn't any water source to speak of in Brookings - so I'm not sure why there are there.  But they hang around the high school, and I lived right by the high school so got to hear their songs most of the year.

Anyway, I take the open water and active birds as a sign that spring is around the corner.  Apparently we are going to have one last snow storm this week so if we can just get through that maybe sun and warmer weather will be here to stay.

See on,
Julee

Day 94. Odd Mailbox. Also known as the mailcycle.

Today as I was out driving around around, enjoying the start of spring (finally), I found this gem.  I was driving on a road with no shoulder so I did not get to stop and play around with angles or exposure.  I just slowed the car down, rolled down the window, tried to frame a decent shot - and this is what I got. 

My husband loves cycling and so I love to find photos of unique bicycles.  Now I just have to hope he refrains from using his mechanical skills to reproduce this on our front lawn.  It's awesome indeed, but I'm not sure I want one of my own.

See on,
Julee

Day 93. Splash.

Finally we are experiencing some melting of our snow.  I was a bit surprised to see on the news this morning that even in our region, where we had PLENTY of snow, that our drought conditions have become more severe over the winter.  (Most of the rest of the country appeared to be in similary distressed states.  Definitely not a good way to start the growing season.)

But spring is on the horizon.  (And the weatherman said we may be due for a heavy, heavy rain next week.  So fingers crossed for all the farmers.)

Today however I took advantage of the melting.  There was some interesting splashing that was occurring on a rock nearby my home as the roof melt dripped off the house.  In order to try and capture the splash, I got out my tripod and tried playing with a long exposure setting in hopes of getting a smooth motion of water.

It probably goes without saying that I did not have luck at my first attempt.  I should have also hauled out my camera manual, but I wanted to see what I could come up with on my own.  I did successfully increase the exposure time but I got a totally overexposed picture.  The rock and pretty much all of the surroundings were white.  I had my best luck when I rapid fired the camera capturing several shots a second.

I'll have to find a nearby little stream of water to practice on later this spring.  But I still kind of liked my best shot from today.  I can totally see the splash! 

I also thought a small bit of left over ice made for an neat centerpiece to water droplets on a wooden fence.

See on.
Julee