Easy being green

This little guy inhabits our garden, presumably eating pesky bugs. My two year old and I followed him around the yard for a bit, each with a different fascination. I had my beefy macro lens in hand, and PJ was just enjoying his first encounter with a frog of any sort.

The wet year we’ve had so far has brought back the frogs’ song in many parts of town. From one of my River Road adventures a while back, I thought I’d provide another link to the frogs enjoying a cool North Dakota evening.

US Bank et al provide free housing to some needy residents

This anxious mommy is feeding two little hatchlings nestled inside the “a” of the US Bank sign on the front of the Arrowhead Plaza branch. With a great view of the capitol and the rising sun, these nests also were perfect for riding out the storms this weekend. I originally saw these while out on a date with my lovely wife Friday night before the aforementioned storm (we LOVE the Walrus). Obviously I didn’t take my camera on such an occasion, so I caught these birds playing the following morning.

US Bank isn’t the only business whose sign provides such hospitality to the birdies. I think this ampersand may be part of the Arrowhead Cleaners sign, but I don’t remember. Looks cozy, doesn’t it?

This little fella is hanging out in front of the fitness center. No need for a membership when you live there! It’s nice that these birds have found such a secure place to nest; otherwise they might be homeless, after the blustery weather we’ve been having.

I don’t have any birds nestling above my motion sensors on my house or garage this year, since the upgraded ones are too small to support a nest. I do, however, have some great pictures and video of last year’s robins feeding their babies! I should dig those up and post them; I don’t think I ever got around to it last spring.

What all the buzz was about over lunch yesterday

I had some time to go outside over my lunch break yesterday so I used it to chase some bugs around with the camera, including this bee. I followed it from flower to flower for a while before spotting the first damselflies of the season.

A shot like this is MUCH harder than it looks. Harsh sunlight complicated the exposure. A breeze caused the flowers to wag, and bees are unpredictable. Nevertheless, it was a fun way to pass the time. Sunshine and fresh air are a very important part of any break in the day!

New neighbors

There are dozens, perhaps hundreds, of pelicans taking up residence along the Heart River near the Highway 6th crossing. Thanks to Cuffs54 for the tip! I was driving around this weekend with my boy and stopped to take a look. I got a few pictures, but really didn’t spend much time looking through the lens. PJ likes to throw rocks in the water, so I was being the attentive daddy…helping him gather rocks and throw them while keeping him from tumbling the water at the same time.

I don’t know what drew them, what’s keeping them, or how long they’ll be there. All I know is that they’re quite a sight! Check them out while they’re in town.

Alright. That’s it. It’s ON

With the return of spring each year comes my quest for some nice photos of the Great Blue Heron. I happen to know where several of these big birds hang out, and I occasionally try to capture them with my camera. They’re big, blueish-purple, and really quite unique. You know how the old saying goes: how do you catch a unique bird? You ‘neak up on it!

So far I’ve had mixed success with the local herons, such as this photo at sunset beneath the old Memorial Bridge. These birds can see a long ways and freeze when they sense something they don’t particularly like, which was great for me; I wanted to take a long exposure of the river, the bird, the reflection, and the bridge. In this case I actually had a willing and cooperative subject!

I was able to work my way toward these three, standing in an interesting formation, one afternoon near Fox Island. Instead of employing any sort of subtilty, I simply walked out to them very slowly. By that I mean a couple of steps per minute. I got close enough to capture their interesting arrangement before a couple of them took flight. It wasn’t as close as I’d wanted to be, but it was better.

So far this year I’ve been stymied by the Great Blue Heron. Nevertheless, I will be carefully watching the few backwater areas where I know they have staked their territorial claim. Maybe I’ll make good on all those promises to buy a blind and set up to wait for them, although patience has never been one of my most noteworthy qualities. In any case, the game’s afoot. Hopefully I’ll have some decent heron photos to post here soon.

Oh deer. Again.

I was minding my own business on south Washington Street when I noticed this doe stepping out of the trees beside the road. Having my camera handy, I stopped to take a few photos before she got nervous and sauntered back into the cover of the tree row. It’s cool how we have wildlife all around us here in the Bismarck-Mandan area. Yesterday I saw four Great Blue Herons, although I didn’t get a decent shot of any of them. They’re way too nervous; it’s almost impossible to get near them!

Wild horses couldn’t drag me away

Not only could wild horses not drag me away from my camera, as the tired cliche’ goes, but in this case they were the object of my photography passion. These are some of the wild horses inhabiting the South Unit of the ever-popular Theodore Roosevelt National Park.

While the loop road through the park is still closed, some of the horses stray close enough to the open roads to be worth the short hike to chase them. In this case they didn’t really do anything spectacular. It was neat to get up close to them, though. I’ve hiked a long ways out into the middle of the park in the summer while chasing these beasts, but never in the crusty snow. Before this past weekend, that is. Thankfully they weren’t far away. It was COLD! Trudging through crusted ice and snow in the Badlands’ already uneven terrain is one heck of a workout as well.

Hey, I found your missing pheasants

I wouldn’t have believed it myself if I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes. Every single dark blotch in the snow of the picture above is a pheasant or two. Not only was this eye-catching, it wasn’t exactly an anomaly; I encountered field after field like this on Saturday. The phenomenon surfaced on our way south of Lefor and continued all the way south and east until we approached Glen Ullin from the south. In fact, we took one through the grille of my friend’s car just north of Elgin. The sides of the roads were lined with hungry pheasants as well as one who lost their encounter with traffic.

This is good news for any hunters who worried about the heavy snowfall preventing the pheasants from getting to their food. Apparently they’re still doing quite alright.

Bismarck-Mandan homeless numbers skyrocket in late October

With the old Liberty Memorial Bridge gone, and the last of the debris being cleaned up and removed, hundreds – maybe thousands – of pigeons which called it home are now…well, homeless. Granted, they’re pigeons and could probably find a perch nearly anywhere; however, pigeons have called that bridge home for decades! In fact, the acid in their poop was a significant contributor to the bridge’s deterioration.

Not much goes through the mind of a pigeon. They are, however, attached to the bridge and are still congregating on its wreckage. I’m a bird lover, so I can’t help but feel sorry for these birds whose world got turned upside down last week. They don’t know any better. These birds will continue to cling to the bridge while it lies in pieces just like they did when it spanned the river.

The columns don’t provide much solace for a pigeon, but they’re all that’s left. Soon they’ll be gone, too. Don’t these poor guys just look like they’re wondering what the heck happened to “their” bridge? I suppose that’s the bird lover in me trying to empathize with them.

This sandbar has become a sort of pigeon refugee camp, as has the sandbar just south of the new bridge. They can’t stay here forever; soon the river will freeze, and may even rise above this sandbar. They need some sort of bird “community organizer” to come up with a game plan to relocate!

Progress brings bad along with the good. In this case, it’s the pigeons who got their world rocked, especially when those explosives went off! I’m told the crew attempted to scare the pigeons away before blowing the bridge, but there’s really nothing you can do. Even with the bridge reduced to a few remaining beams strewn about the ground below, you still can’t drive those pigeons away. Naturally there was some collateral damage during the explosions. The birds who survived need to find another place soon, as winter is bearing down on us!

Peek-a-boo

One of the denizens of the Big Cat Exhibit at the Dakota Zoo was peeking above the window frame during a recent trip I took with my boys. This picture could have a more menacing tone if it included my little boy just a foot or two back from the window! I do actually have one framed that way.

The cats were lined up along the windows and fence because it was just about dinner time for them. No, not because my two little boys and I were on the other side of the glass. The zoo staff were running around on their golf carts, delivering chow. These cats heard things banging around over at the bear exhibit, and I’m guessing they have been conditioned to expect their meat soon after.

Zoo hours are already cut dramatically, to only a few hours a day on a select few days. Gates are open from 1pm to 5pm, Friday through Sunday, weather permitting. I still haven’t seen the snow leopards. Time’s a-wasting!