White-winged Crossbill

[Borealhunter]

I took this shot today while doing some bird guiding up in north central Lake County. In the last 2 days NO Great Gray Owl reports in Lake Co. or Sax-Zim Bog that is so darn frustrating. The Boreal Chickadees (4) are back at Jay's feeder on the Admiral Rd in the 'bog'. 2 Hawk Owls are near the intersection of CR 7 & CR 28. Pine Grosbeaks are coming to Johnny's feeder on Arkola Rd and there is now seed dumped on the north side of CR 52 to get them in the full light! I see I got some request to send full frame photo of the "angel" Great Gray Owl and I'll do that this week sometime after the guiding slows down. Guiding almost every day in the next two weeks. I hope to share some more photos soon.

Mike

[Steve Foss]

The Boreal Chickadees (4) are back at Jay's feeder on the Admiral Rd

Nice capture, Mike.

The boreal chickadees at the Admiral Road feeding station were great to see on Saturday, since they hadn't been eager to enter the limelight earlier in the season. There were several times when we saw two boreals at once feeding on the deer ribcage or staging to do so, and once or twice we were pretty sure there were three individuals at once in the immediate area.

Kinda felt like old times hanging around with cameras, lenses, monopods and binocs at Jason's stations.

Last year's station in the dead tamaracks on the east side of Admiral has been mounted again by Jason and Jim (deer ribcage, sunflower on the ground and sunflower feeders). An additional ribcage and a small pile of dry dogfood also have been positioned on the west side of the road across from the primary station. The multiple stations at Admiral Road for birds make things excellent for birders but less excellent for avian photographers.

And here's an imperative. Deer hunting up here has been lean this year, and if anyone has ribcages or carcasses to spare and to donate, post your contact info here so Jason and Jim can get in touch with you.

For photographers, the feeder put up by Jonny on Arkola is darn good sometimes. On a cloudy day it doesn't matter where the feeder is, much, and while it was quite sunny on Saturday, we were able to get some very nice images with birds that were backlit (rimshot) by the early sun, as well as a bunch in full shade, and full shade offers even diffuse light, though one has to ramp up ISO sometimes to get fast enough shutter speeds. Birds on the north side of the Arkola station (which are in the sun when the sun is out), provide all the challenges always offered by sunlit birds. Harsh contrast and shadows cast by angled light.

The Arkola station offers a lot of options, and thanks to Jonny for all of those options.