Cicada

First big ones of the year. 20.25" and 20" respectively.

A few of my favorites.

Real nice night Monday night. International Space Station was doing a fly-by. When it topped the horizon, it was over southeast Alberta and when it crawled into the earth's shadow it was over the east edge of Wisconsin in just a little over 4 minutes. Not all of these have the same white balance setting. I messed with it to see what I liked better. The tree was light painted with a small LED flashlight. Opinions and critiques are welcome.

I've had this church, Atlanta Church, near Ulen in mind for this for about two years. Finally, had a super moon with better weather conditions to give it a go. With the bright warm sunny day, there was a lot of convection coming off the field giving the shots a wavy painted look. As the moon rose and the temperature dropped, sharper images were possible. I did get distracted by a snowy owl and missed the actual moon rise. CC welcome.

Does anyone know of a program where a person can create a calendar for your home computer? What I would like for it to do is be your wallpaper and change automatically at the beginning of each month.

Been finding some chants and lobsters and a few chicken of the woods. Other than that, pickiing berries. Wild plums, grapes and looks like lots of high bush cranberries to be had. This is bad for a diabetic to be thinking about jelly making.

Little road trip to Fergus Falls last weekend to visit the egret rookery. Fun morning and found more than just egret hanging around. Talked to LeeKen about the purple headed mallard. He thought it was just the way the light was hitting the head. The two side by side and it looked like they were different color. Any thoughts? Little hawk was taken in Maplewood State Park on the way back home.

Thank you DonBo. It was so animated the whole time it sat there, maybe close to ten minutes.

Three favorites at the moment. By the time they upload, I may change my mind.

A few from Maplewood State Park on April 16th. Non-professional, but they stood still long enough for me to get 'em.

First butterfly of the year, flew along side the pickup to get my attention. First blossom, sure sign of spring. Fluorescent green on mallard. Gave me a few minutes before flying off. Great horned owl playing peek-a-boo. Eagle wanted to play the game too. Short vacation is over, now back to work.

Headed into North Dakota to see if I could witness the snow goose migration. We only found about 4000 geese, but talked to one guy that said there were about 700,000 geese at this time last year in Tewaukon National Wildlife Refuge.

Had an opportunity to tag along with LeeKen to Bluestem Nature Conservancy and sit in a blind Saturday morning. Thought it was unusual to see a deer with antlers late March.

A few from November 13th taken near a well known lone tree in west central Minnesota. Lots of folks have their own name and story with this tree. Our family knows this as Halfway Tree because it was halfway from my grandpa Joe's house in Barnesville to the place where he kept his pontoon on Lida. C&C Welcome. I had a tough time editing these.

Best so far this year. 20.25" from west central Minnesota. Tube jig in 3 feet of water.