Great gray.

[JayinMN]

I took three hundred shots tonight and managed to blow the white on the "bow tie" in every one of them.

[MN Shutterbug]

managed to blow the white on the "bow tie" in every one of them.

Who cares? They're still awesome photos of a bird I hope to see next week. Where did you find this beauty?

Actually, I just opened the first photo, and according to my program, there is nothing blown.

[Steve Foss]

I've looked at all of them and I keep coming back to the first one, Jason. They are all nice, but that one is excellent.

Blown whites in the bow tie? I honestly don't know what you're talking about.

[Nymph]

They are all great.

[finnbay]

Those are some fantastic shots! Clear and crisp! First is my favorite followed very closely by the second.

[JayinMN]

Maybe its my monitor, but they look blown out on it. I nearly froze my hands off taking pictures of this guy.

Steve, by battery grip finally made it out of the box today and onto the camera...lol

X-tackleman, this owl was on McDavitt Rd. If you make it up you might want to check that road in the a.m for owls. Both hawk owls and ggo are being seen there. Later in the day work on black backed and American 3 toed woodpeckers on McDavitt Rd too or head over to S. Admiral for boreal chickadees, red polls, gray jays and downy woodpeckers. Other birds occasionally show up but those are the most reliable and almost a guarantee there. Start searching for owls again in the evening. The admiral feeder and McDavitt Rd are right next to one another so its easy to go from one to the other. If you want some company let me know, I can probably meet you in the morning.

Now the bad news, McDavitt Rd is been taped off for logging and I have a feeling its going to start any time now. Who knows what will happen with the owls, maybe they will still hunt the logged areas or maybe they will disappear and need to be relocated.

[jonny_redhorse]

Nice captures Jay!...Big Mac has been quite accomodating this winter for sure...a couple of individuals from south of the cities and a guy from texas arrived to see Mac sitting on a spruce as I was leaving the area...they sure were excited to say the least!...I then went to the feeder at the BlueSpruce Road for the first time this season and saw a few evening grosbeaks,the chickadees(no boreals) nuthatches,redpolls(one was lighter plumaged maybe a hoary)...one white winged crossbill....but no pine grosbeaks...they haven't as plentifull as last year for whatever reason this year......To bad about the logging on McDavitt....enjoy the sights we have today because they may not be there tomorrow.....such is life on this ball in space....ever changing....

[Jim Almquist]

Looks like you had a good time in the bog. Big Mac treated you to a nice photo session. Good looking shots.

[MN Shutterbug]

Jay, thanks for the tips. I won't know til later today if I'm going solo or not. Either way, I'd still like to meet you. I wouldn't mind at all, having a guide. I'm still not 100% sure which day(s) I'll be there. Last night's forecast for Meadowlands had been changed to cloudy and chance of snow, for Tuesday. This morning, they changed it back to partly cloudy. It will probably change a couple more times, before the end of the day. Email me your # and I'll give you a call when I know something for sure.

[Steve Foss]

X, the forecasts for the Bog area, especially the clear/cloudy forecasts, are often way off. Temps are usually pretty close.

Jason, really I was winking at you with the blown out bowtie thing. It's something photographers notice (although they mostly don't look bad on my monitor) because we're all picky about that kind of thing. It's nothing a regular person uninfected by our disease would notice at all.

[Dbl]

Wow, beautiful shots.

[Birdsong]

I love the first one, too. It almost looks like netting behind him. But it was fun for me to see him in flight. Never thought about what that head would look like in that position. I would be thrilled with any of those shots.

[buzzsaw]

First three are killer bud! YOU are ramping it up!!

[Paul]

Say, would you guys mind picking up the Sax-Zim bog and loading everyting on a flat bed and haul it to the prarie for a while so the rest of us can get some decent pics this year. LOL. It has been a little quiet in the Valley this year, I suppose that the 2 weeks of -25 to -40 have had their toll. I noticed my feeders are slowing down a lot, not many wood peckers and no color birds yet, just some chickadees, and a few other fast flying air rodents.