May 26, 2013 - Spring Photos
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Here’s one of several Red-necked Grebes that I photographed on a recent trip to the North Shore. In winter they would be mostly dull gray in color. Here you see the breeding plumage with a bright red neck and distinct black and white feathers on the head.
Red-necked Grebes dive for their food and here’s one just about to enter the water. I’d like to claim that I timed it just right and pushed the shutter button at the exact moment to capture this image. But the truth is I took lots of photos and this one was a pleasant surprise. When you see one of these birds diving, it looks like it takes a short hop before the dive. But it happens very quickly. A photo like this allows you to see that the body of the grebe really does come all the way out of the water when it dives.
On my North Shore trip I also saw this Snowshoe Hare transitioning from its snowy white winter coat to its brown summer coat. There are patches of white fur above the nose, and on the ears, legs, and belly. There are a few strands of white fur sticking out through the brown fur on the side of the hare. They look much longer than the brown fur. I guess you would expect that; the hare needs a much heavier coat to stay warm in the winter.
I took this photo of Trumpeter Swans near the Prairie River in Grand Rapids, MN. By the 1930s, Trumpeter Swans had disappeared from Minnesota because of overhunting. In the 1960s, a program was started in Hennepin County to restore these birds to our state. The program has been so successful that these huge white birds are now quite common throughout the state.
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